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E  S  SAYS: 


MOEAL,  POLITICAL  AND  JISTHETIC. 


BY 


HEKBEKT  SPEISTCEK. 


AITTHOB  or 


'nXrSTRATIOire   of    ■U^NIVBESAL    PBOGEKSS,"    "  FIBST    PKINCIPLES    of    PmLOSOPHT," 

"  KDUCATION,"  "SOCIAL  STATICS,"  "ELEMENTS  OF  BIOLOGY,"  "  ELEKSKTS 

OF  P8TCHOLOOT,"  "CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES," 

ETC,  ETC.,  ETC 


Library^ :; 

9f  Califotn^*- 


NEW  YORK : 
D.    APPLETON    AN-D    COMPANY, 


44S  &  445  BKOADWAY. 
1865. 


i^ 


WOBKS   BY    THE    SAME    AUTHOB. 

PUBLISHED    BY   D.  APPLETON    &    CO. 

EDUCATION— INTELLECTUAL,  MORAL,  AND  PHYSICAL.    1 

vol.,  12mo,    283  pages.    Cloth,  $1.25. 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  UNIVERSAL  PROGRESS.  1  vol.,  large 
12ino.    470  pages.    Cloth,  $1.75. 

FIRST  PRINCIPLES  op  a  New  System  of  Philosophy.  1  vol.,  large 
12mo.    508  pages.    Cloth  $2.00. 

TEE  CLASSIFICATION  OF  TEE  SCIENCES;  to  which  is  added 
reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M.  Comte.  A  pamphlet  of  50 
pages.    Fine  paper.    25  cents. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  BIOLOGY.  In  quarterly  parts,  by  annual  sub- 
scription of  $2.00.  Five  parts  are  publidied;  the  sixth  will  appear  this  year 
and  complete  the  first  volume. 

NOW  IN  PBESS : 

SOCIAL  STATICS ;  OT,  the  conditions  essential  to  human  happiness 
specified,  and  the  first  of  them  developed-    1  vol.,  large  12mo.    600  pages. 


S^O 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864,  by 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  tor  the 
.      c  .  .       ;0o^them  District  of  New  York. 


EDITOR'S    PREFACE 


The  miscellaneous  writings  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
originally  published  in  various  Englisb  periodicals,  were 
collected  by  the  Author  and  reissued  in  London  in  two 
volumes,  under  the  title  of  "  Essays  Scientific,  Political, 
and  Speculative,"  first  and  second  series — the  former 
appearing  in  1857,  and  the  latter  in  1863.  Neither  of 
these  volumes  has  been  printed  in  this  country,  though 
a  small  edition  of  the  second  series  was  imported  in 
sheets,  bound  and  sold  in  a  few  weeks.  The  increasing 
demand  for  these  works  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
the  impracticability  of  obtaining  them  from  England, 
owing  to  the  high  rate  of  exchange,  made  it  desirable 
to  republish  them  here.  Accordingly,  a  portion  of  the 
Essays,  selected  from  both  series,  were  recently  reissued 
under  the  title  of  "  Illustrations  of  Universal  Progress." 
This  collection  embraced  the  more  strictly  scientific  ar- 
'  icles,  and  those  which  bore  most  directly  upon  the  gen- 


c       c  c    _c 

e  c     c  c 

CfC    c  c-  t 

c       c  c 


'  4  '     '  PEEFACE. 

eral  doctrine  of  Progress  or  Evolution.  The  present 
volume  puts  the  American  public  in  possession  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  remaining  essays. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  nearly  all  that 
this  Author  has  written  bears  more  or  less  directly  upon 
the  theory  of  Evolution,  and  that  his  tendency  is  to 
consider  all  subjects  in  their  scientific  aspects  and  rela- 
tions ;  that  is,  he  aims  to  seize  and  bring  out  with  scien- 
tific precision,  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  subject 
treated.  This  trait  is  eminently  marked  in  his  disquisi- 
tions upon  Education,  and  will  be  found  equally  to  char- 
acterize the  essays  now  published. 

The  large  success  and  high  commendation  which  the 
former  volume  has  met  with,  shows  that  the  genius  of 
Mr.  Spencer  is  widely  appreciated  in  this  country,  and 
renders  any  laudation  of  his  works  unnecessary  in  this 
place.  But  it  is  proper  to  call  attention  to  the  special 
claims  of  several  of  the  essays  of  this  collection  upon 
the  American  public.  The  nature  of  our  political  insti- 
tutions implies,  and  their  success  demands,  on  the  part 
of  the  people,  an  acquaintance  with  those  fundamental 
principles  which  determine  the  reason,  the  scope,  and 
authority  of  all  civil  rule.  Kepudiating  as  we  did,  at 
the  outset  of  our  national  career,  the  ancient  and  pre- 
vailing forms  of  government ;  casting  loose  to  a  consid- 
erable extent  from  the  traditions  and  precedents  of  the 
past,  and  organizing  a  new  system  professedly  founded 
upon  self-evident  truths,  and  aiming  at  the  establish- 


PREFACE.  5 

raent  of  natural  rights,  it  is  obvious  that  our  citizens 
have  a  vital  and  peculiar  interest  in  the  elucidation  of 
those  foundation  truths  which  should  guide  the  course 
of  legislation,  and  control  the  policy  of  government. 
And  now  when  our  political  system  is  convulsed  to  its 
centre,  and  we  are  passing  into  a  new  order  of  things, 
this  duty  is  pressed  upon  us  with  critical  urgency,  and 
we  are  summoned  with  solemn  and  startling  emphasis 
to  the  task  of  moulding  our  civil  policy  into  completer 
harmony  with  those  principles  which  advancing  knowl- 
edge and  a  riper  experience  have  combined  to  establish. 

Mr.  Spencer  has  given  these  subjects  profound  and 
protracted  study,  and  the  views  he  advances  are  entitled 
to  grave  consideration.  A  devoted  student  of  science 
in  its  comprehensive  bearings  upon  the  welfare  and  im- 
provement of  society,  he  has  labored  to  unfold  and  il- 
lustrate those  laws  of  human  nature  and  human  action, 
of  social  organization  and  social  growth,  which  rest  at 
the  foundation  of  all  intelligent  administration  of  public 
affairs.  Without  by  any  means  assuming  that  his  views 
are  final,  it  may  be  claimed  that  they  mark  an  immense 
advance  in  political  philosophy,  that  they  indicate  the 
inevitable  direction  of  future  progress,  and  throw  im- 
portant light  upon  numerous  questions  of  immediate 
and  practical  concern. 

Although  some  of  the  following  Essays  may  seem  to 
be  confined  to  the  consideration  of  English  policy,  yet 
this  limitation  is  only  apparent,     English  facts  and 


6  PREFACE. 

experiences  are  taken  as  examples  and  illustrations,  but 
the  discussions  strike  through  to  principles  of  universal 
moment  and  applicability.  The  line  of  thought  opened 
in  portions  of  this  volume  is  systematically  pursued  in 
the  Author's  work  entitled  "  Social  Statics  ;  or,  the  con- 
ditions essential  to  human  happiness  specified,  and  the 
first  of  them  developed,"  which  is  now  in  course  of  re- 
publication. 

ITbw  Yobz,  Sept.  10,  1864. 


CONTENTS 


PAQK 

I. — The  Philosophy  of  Style,  .        .   _  .        .        9 

■^  II. — 0VEB-LEGI8LATI0N,=   - 48 

in.— The  Moeals  op  Teade, 107 

IV. — Personal  Beauty,  t-* 149 

•*  Y. — RePEESENTATIVE  GOVEBNMENT,    ~   "    .  .  .  .163 

«•  VI. — ^Pkison-ethios, -- 210 

•*VII. — Railway  Hobals  and  Railway  Policy,           .  .    251 

Vin. — Gbacefulness,   >z 312 

—  IX. — State-tampebings  with  Mone.y  and  Banks,     .  .319 

^  X. — Parliament aby  Refobm  :  the  Dangebs  and  the 

Safeguaeds, 353 


I. 
THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  STYLE. 


OOMME]N"TrN"G  on  the  seeming  incongruity  between 
his  father's  argumentative  powers  and  his  ignorance 
of  formal  logic,  Tristram  Shandy  says  : — "  It  was  a  matter 
of  just  wonder  with  my  worthy  tutor,  and  two  or  three 
fellows  of  that  learned  society,  that  a  man  who  knew  not 
so  much  as  the  names  of  his  tools,  should  be  able  to  work 
after  that  fashion  with  them."  Sterne's  intended  implica- 
tion that  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  reasoning 
neither  makes,  nor  is  essential  to,  a  good  reasoner,  is 
doubtless  true.  Thus,  too,  is  it  with  grammar.  As  Dr. 
Latham,  condemning  the  usual  school-drill  in  Lindley 
Murray,  rightly  remarks : — "  Gross  vulgarity  is  a  fault  to 
be  prevented ;  but  the  proper  prevention  is  to  be  got  from 
habit — not  rules."  Similarly,  there  can  be  little  question 
that  good  composition  is  far  less  dependent  upon  acquaint- 
ance with  its  laws,  than  upon  practice  and  natural  apti- 
tude. A  clear  head,  a  quick  imagination,  and  a  sensitive  j 
ear,  will  go  far  towards  making  all  rhetorical  precepts  fj 
needless.  He  who  daily  hears  and  reads  well-framed- 
sentences,  will  naturally  more  or  less  tend  to  use  similar 
ones.  And  where  there  exists  any  mental  idiosyncrasy — 
where  there  is  a  deficient  verbal  memory,  or  an  inadequate 
1* 


10  THE  PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

sense  of  logical  dependence,  or  but  little  perception  of 
order,  or  a  lack  of  constructive  ingenuity ;  no  amount  of 
instruction  will  remedy  the  defect.  Nevertheless,  some 
practical  result  may  be  expected  from  a  familiarity  with 
the  principles  of  style.  The  endeavour  to  conform  to  laws 
may  tell,  though  slowly.  And  if  in  no  other  way,  yet, 
as  facilitating  revision,  a  knowledge  of  the  thing  to  be 
achieved — a  clear  idea  of  what  constitutes  a  beauty,  and 
what  a  blemish — cannot  fail  to  be  of  service. 

No  general  theory  of  expression  seems  yet  to  have 
been  enunciated.  The  maxims  contained  in  works  on 
composition  and  rhetoric,  are  presented  in  an  unorganized 
form.  Standing  as  isolated  dogmas — as  empirical  gener- 
alizations, they  are  neither  so  clearly  apprehended,  nor  so 
much  respected,  as  they  would  be  were  they  deduced 
from  some  simple  first  principle.  We  are  told  that 
"brevity  is  the  soul  of,  wit."  We  hear  styles  condemned 
as  verbose  or  involved.  Blair  says  that  every  needless 
part  of  a  sentence  "  mterrupts  the  description  and  clogs 
the  image ;"  and  again,  that  "  long  sentences  fatigue  the 
reader's  attention."  It  is  remarked  by  Lord  Kaimes,  that 
"  to  give  the  utmost  force  to  a  period,  it  ought,  if  possible, 
to  be  closed  with  the  word  that  makes  the  greatest  figure." 
That  parentheses  should  be  avoided  and  that  Saxon  words 
should  be  used  in  preference  to  those  of  Latin  origin,  are 
established  precepts.  But,  however  influential  the  tniths 
thus  dogmatically  embodied,  they  would  be  much  more 
influential  if  reduced  to  something  like  scientific  ordina- 
tion. In  this,  as  in  other  cases,  conviction  will  be  greatly 
strengthened  when  we  understand  the  whg.  And  we  may 
be  sure  that  a  comprehension  of  the  general  principle  from 
which  the  rules  of  composition  result,  will  not  only  bring 
them  home  to  us  with  greater  force,  but  will  discover  to 
us  other  rules  of  like  origin. 


ECONOMIZING 


11 


I^H^iticrlying  these 
many  of 


On  seeking  for  some  ci 
current  maxims,  we  may  se^ 
them,  the  importance  of  econoi 
er's  attention.  To  so  present  i( 
I  apprehended  with  the  least  possible^ 
'  desideratum  towards  which  most  of 
quoted  point.  When  we  condemn  writing 
or  confused,  or  intricate — when  we  praise^ 
easy,  and  blame  that  as  fatiguing,  we  con^ 
consciously  assume  this  desideratum  as  our  stan5UVl  of 
judgment.  Regarding  language  as  an  apparatus  of  sym- 
bols for  the  conveyance  of  thought,  we  may  say  that,  as 
in  a  mechanical  apparatus,]t^e  more  simple  and  the  better 
arranged  its  parts,  the  greater  will  be  the  effect  prodaocd. 
In  either  case,  whatever  force  is  absorbed  by  the  mafijine 
is  deducted  from  the  result.  A  reader  or  listener  has  at 
each  moment  but  a  limited  amount  of  mental  power 
available.  To  recognize  and  interpret  the  symbols  pre- 
sented to  him,  requires  part  of  this  power ;  to  arrange  and 
combine  the  images  suggested  requires  a  further  part ;  and 
only  that  part  which  remains  can  be  used  for  realizing  the 
thought  conveyed.  Hence,  the  more  tmie  and  attention 
it  takes  to  receive  and  understand  each  sentence,  the  less 
time  and  attention  can  be  given  to  the  contained  idea ; 
and  the  less  vividly  will  that  idea  be  conceived. 

How  truly  language  must  be  regarded  as  a  hindrance 
to  thought,  though  the  necessary  instrument  of  it,  we 
shall  clearly  perceive  on  remembering  the  comparative 
force  with  which  simple  ideas  are  communicated  by  signs. 
To  say,  "  Leave  the  room,"  is  less  expressive  than  to  point 
to  the  door.  Placing  a  finger  on  the  lips  is  more  forcible 
than  whispering,  "  Do  not  speak."  A  beck  of  the  hand  is 
better  than,  "  Come  here."  ISTo  phrase  can  convey  the 
idea  of  surprise  so  vividly  as  opening  the  eyes  and  raising 
the  eyebrows.     A  shrug  of  the  shoulders  would  lose  much 


F'HY  OF   STYLE. 

r^^^gain,  it  may  be  remarked 
Wnployed,  the  strongest  effects 
Uig«     -  c^ns,  which  condense  entire  sen- 
is^es.     And  in  other  cases,  where  custom 
^^i«t*««S3  thoughts  by  single  words,  as  in  Be- 
0,  -id^dffe,  much  force  would  be  lost  ,by  ex- 
i^  specific  propositions.    Hence,  carrying 
^  •  ■     ] 1 1<^-  <       jr  that  language  is  the  vehicle  of  thought, 
I  son  to  think  that  in  all  cases  the  friction 
lie  vehicle  deduct  from  its  efficiency ;  and 
..|.vj6ition,  the  chief,  if  not  the  sole  thing  to  be 
reduce  this  friction  and  inertia  to  the  smallest 
u|H|^amount.     Let  us  then  inquire  whether  economy 
•f ^PKcipient's  attention  is  not  the  secret  of  effect,  alike  ' 
IT!  'he  right  choice  and  collocation. of  words,  in  the  best 
arrangement  of  clauses  in  a  sentence,  in  the  proper  order 
of  its  principal  and  subordinate  propositions,  in  the  judi- 
\  cious  use  of  simile,  metaphor,  and  other  figures  of  speech, 
and  even  in  the  rhythmical  sequence  of  syllables. 

The  greater  forcibleness  of  Saxon  English,  or  rather 
non-Latin  English,  first  claims  our  attention.  The  several 
special  reasons  assignable  for  this  may  all  be  reduced  to 
the  general  reason — economy.  The  most  important  of  J 
them  is  early  association.  A  child's  vocabulary  is  almost 
wholly  Saxon.  He  says,  I  have,  not  I  possess — I  wish, 
not  I  desire  ;  he  does  not  reflect,  he  thinks ;  he  does  not 
beg  for  amusement,  but  ior  play ;  he  calls  things  nice  or 
nasty,  not  pleasant  or  disagreeable.  The  synonyms 
which  he  learns  in  after  years,  never  become  so  closely,  so 
organically  connected  with  the  ideas  signified,  as  do  these 
original  words  used  in  childhood ;  and  hence  the  associa- 
tion remains  less  strong.  But  in  what  does  a  strong 
association  between  a  word  and  an  idea  differ  from  a  weak 
one  ?  Simply  in  the  greater  ease  and  rapidity  of  the 
suggestive  action.     It  can  be  in  nothing  else.     Both  of 


ECONOMIC  ADVANTAGES  OF   SAXON  WORDS.  13 

two  words,  if  they  be  strictly  synonymous,  eventually  call 
up  the  same  image.  The  expression — It  is  acid^  must  in 
the  end  give  rise  to  the  same  thought  as — ^It  is  sour  /  but 
because  the  term  acid  was  learnt  later  in  life,  and  has  not 
been  so  often  followed  bxthe  thought  symbolized,  it  does 
not  so  readily  arouse  that  thought  as  the  term  sour.  If 
we  remember  how  slowly  and  with  what  labour  the 
appropriate  ideas  follow  unfamiliar  wor^s  in  another  lan- 
guage, and  how  increasing  familiarity  with  such  words 
brings  greater  rapidity  and  ease  of  comprehension ;  and 
if  we  consider  that  the  same  process  must  have  gone  on 
with  the  words  of  our  mother  tongue  from  childhood  up- 
wards, we  shall  clearly  see  that  the  earliest  learnt  and 
oftenest  used  words,  will,  other  things  equal,  call  up 
images  with  less  loss  of  time  and  energy  than  their  later 
learnt  synonyms. 

The  further  superiority  possessed  by  3axon  English  in 
its  comparative  brevity,  obviously  comes  under  the  same 
generalization.  If  it  be  an  advantage  to  express  an  idea 
in  the  smallest  number  of  words,  then  will  it  be  an  advan- 
tage to  express  it  in  the  smallest  number  of  syllables.  If 
circuitous  phrases  and  needless  expletives  distract  the 
attention  and  diminish  the  strength  of  the  impression  pro- 
duced, then  do  surplus  articulations  do  so.  A  certain 
eiFort,  though  commonly  an  inappreciable  one,  must  be 
required  to  recognize  every  vowel  and  consonant.  If,  as 
all  know,  it  is  tiresome  to  listen  to  an  indistinct  speaker, 
or  read  a  badly-written  manuscript ;  and  if,  as  we  cannot 
doubt,  the  fatigue  is  a  cumulative  result  of  the  attention 
needed  to  catch  successive  syllables;  it  follows  that  atten- 
tion  is  in  such  cases  abspi:bed  by  each  syllable.  And  if  this 
"be  true  when  the^syllables  are  difficult  of  recognition,  it 
will  also  be  true,  though  in  a  less  degree,  when  the  recogni- 
tion of  them  is  easy.  Hence,  the  shortness  of  Saxon  words 
becomes  a  reason  for  their  greater  force.    One  qualification, 


14  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  STYLE. 

however,  must  not  be  overlooked.  A  word  which  in  itself 
embodies  the  most  important  part  of  the  idea  to  be  convey- 
ed, especially  when  that  idea  is  an  emotional  one,  may  often 
with  advantage  be  a  polysyllabic  word.  Thus  it  seems 
more  forcible  to  say, "  It  is  magnificent^'^  than  "  It  is 
grand,'*''  The  word  vast  is  not  so  powerful  a  one  as  stu- 
pendous. Calling  a  thing  nasty  is  not  so  effective  as  call- 
ing it  disgusting. 

There  seem  to  be  several  causes  for  this  exceptional 
superiority  of  certain  long  words.  We  may  ascribe  it 
partly  to  the  fact  that  a  voluminous,  mouth-filling  epithet 
-  is,  by  its  very  size,  suggestive  of  largeness  or  strength ; 
witness  the  immense  pomposity  of  sesquipedalian  verbiage : 
and  when  great  power  or  intensity  has  to  be  suggested, 
this  association  of  ideas  aids  the  effect.  A  further  cause 
may  be  that  a  word  of  several  syllables  admits  of  more 
emphatic  articulation ;  and  as  emphatic  articulation  is  a 
sign  of  emotion,  the  unusual  impressiveness  of  the  thing 
named  is  implied  by  it.  Yet  another  cause  is  that  a  long 
word  (of  which  the  latter  syllables  are  generally  inferred 
as  soon  as  the  first  are  spoken)  allows  the  hearer's  con- 
sciousness a  longer  time  to  dwell  upon  the  quality  pred- 
icated ;  and  where,  as  in  the  above  cases,  it  is  to  this  pred- 
icated quality  that  the  entire  attention  is  called,  an  advan- 
tage results  from  keeping  it  before  the  mind  for  an  appre- 
;  ciable  time.  The  reasons  which  we  have  given  for  pre- 
ferring short  words  evidently  do  not  hold  here.  So  that 
to  make  our  generalization  quite  correct  we  must  say, 
that  while  in  certain  sentences  expressing  strong  feeling, 
the  word  which  more  especially  implies  that  feeling  may 
often  with  advantage  be  a  many-syllabled  or  Latin  one ;  in 
the  immense  majority  of  cases,  each  word  serving  but 
as  a  step  to  the  idea  embodied  by  the  whole  sentence, 
should,  if  possible,  be  a  one-syllabled  or  Saxon  one. 

Once  more,  that  frequent  cause  of  strength  in  Saxon 


PEODtrCTION  OF  VIVID  IMPRESSIONS.  15 

and  other  primitive  words — their  imitative  character,  may  ^ 
be  similarly  resolved  into  the  more  general  cause.  Both 
those  directly  imitative,  as  splashy  hang^  whiz,  roar,  &c., 
and  those  analogically  imitative,  as  rough,  smooth,  Jceen, 
blunt,  thin,  hard,  crag,  &c.,  have  a  greater  or  less  likeness 
to  the  things  symbolized ;  and  by  making  on  the  senses 
impressions  allied  to  the  ideas  to  be  called  up,  they  save 
part  of  the  effort  needed  to  call  up  such  ideas,  and  leav^.,--*-''^ 
more  attention  for  the  ideas  themselves.  "       I 

The  economy  of  the  recipient's  mental  energy,  injtJk-4" 
which  are  thus  resolvable  the  several  causes  of  the  strength 
of  Saxon  English,  may  equally  be  traced  in  the  superior- 
ity of  specific  over  _generic  words.  That  concrete  terms 
produce  more  vivid  impressions  than  abstract  ones,  and 
should,  when  possible,  be  used  instead,  is  a  current  max- 
im of  composition.  As  Dr.  Campbell  says,  "The  more 
general  the  terms  are,  the  picture  is  the  fainter ;  the  more 
special  they  are,  the  brighter."  We  should  avoid  such  a 
sentence  as : 

In  proportion  as  the  manners,  customs,  and  amuse- 
ments of  a  nation  are  cruel  and  barbarous,  the  regulations 
of  their  penal  code  will  be  severe. 

And  in  place  of  it  we  should  write : 

In  proportion  as  men  delight  in  battles,  bull-fights, 

and  combats  of  gladiators,  will  they  punish  by  hanging, 
burning,  and  the  rack. 

This  superiority  of  specific  expressions  is  clearly  due 
to  a  saving  of  the  effort  required  to  translate  words  into 
thoughts.  As  we  do  not  think  in  generals  but  in  particu- 
lars— as,  whenever  any  class  of  things  is  referred  to,  we 
represent  it  to  ourselves  by  calling  to  mind  individual 
members  of  it ;  it  follows  that  when  an  abstract  word  is 
used,  the  hearer  or  reader  has  to  choose  from  his  stock  of 
images,  one  or  more,  by  which  he  may  figure  to  himself 
the  genus  mentioned.      In  doing  this,  some  delay  must 


16  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  STYLE. 

arise — some  force  be  expended;  and  if,  by  employing  a 
specific  term,  an  appropriate  image  can  be  at  once  suggest- 
ed, an  economy  is  achieved,  and  a  more  vivid  impression 
produced. 

Turning  now  from  the  choice  of  words  to  their  se- 
quence, we  shall  find  the  same  general  principle  hold 
good.  We  have  d  priori  reasons  for  believing  that  in 
every  sentence  there  is  some  one  order  of  words  more 
efiective  than  any  other ;  and  that  this  order  is  the  one 
which  presents  the  elements  of  the  proposition  in  the  suc- 
cession in  which  they  may  be  most  readily  put  together. 
As  in  a  narrative,  the  events  should  be  stated  in  such  se- 
quence that  the  mind  may  not  have  to  go  backwards  and 
forwards  in  order  to  rightly  connect  them ;  as  in  a  group 
of  sentences,  the  arrangement  should  be  such,  that  each  of 
them  may  be  understood  as  it  comes,  without  waiting 
for  subsequent  ones ;  so  in  eveiy  sentence,  the  sequence  of 
words  should  be  that  which  suggests  the  constituents  of 
the  thought  in  the  order  most  convenient  for  the  building 
up  that  thought.  Duly  to  enforce  this  truth,  and  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  applications  of  it,  we  must  briefly  inquire 
into  the  mental  act  by  which  the  meaning  of  a  series  of 
words  is  apprehended. 

We  cannot  more  simply  do  this  than  by  considering  the 
proper  collocation  of  the  substantive  and  adjective.  Is  it 
better  to  place  the  adjective  before  the  substantive,  or  the 
1  substantive  before  the  adjective?  Ought  we  to  say  with 
Vthe  French — un  cheval  noir  ;  or  to  say  as  we  do — a  black 
jhorse  ?  Probably,  most  persons  of  culture  would  decide 
that  one  order  is  as  good  as  the  other.  Alive  to  the  bias 
produced  by  habit,  they  would  ascribe  to  that  the  prefer- 
ence they  feel  for  our  own  form  of  expression.  They 
would  expect  those  educated  in  the  use  of  the  opposite 
form  to  have  an  equal  preference  for  that.  And  thus  they 
would  conclude  that  neither  of  these  instinctive  judgments 


LOCATION  OF  ADJECTIVES.  17 

is  of  any  worth.  There  is,  however,  a  philosophical 
ground  for  deciding  in  favour  of  the  English  custom.  If 
"  a  horse  black  "  be  the  arrangement,  immediately  on  the 
utterance  of  the  word  "  horse,"  there  arises,  or  tends  to 
arise,  in  the  mind,  a  picture  answering  to  that  word ;  and 
as  there  has  been  nothing  to  indicate  what  kind  of  horse, 
any  image  of  a  horse  suggests  itself  Very  likely,  how- 
ever, the  image  will  be  that  of  a  brown  horse :  brown 
horses  being  the  most  familiar.  The  result  is  that  when 
the  word  "  black "  is  added,  a  check  is  given  to  the  pro- 
cess of  thought.  Either  the  picture  of  a  brown  horse 
already  present  to  the  imagination  has  to  be  suppressed, 
and  the  picture  of  a  black  one  summoned  in  its  place ;  or 
else,  if  the  picture  of  a  brown  horse  be  yet  unformed,  the 
tendency  to  form  it  has  to  be  stopped.  Whichever  is  the 
case,  a  certain  amount  of  hindrance  results.  But  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  "  a  black  horse  "  be  the  expression  used, 
no  such  mistake  can  be  made.  The  word  "  black,"  indi- 
cating an  abstract  quality,  arouses  no  definite  idea.  It 
simply  prepares  the  mind  for  conceiving  some  object  of 
that  colour;  and  the  attention  is  kept  suspended  until 
that  object  is  known.  If,  then,  by  the  precedence  of  the 
adjective,  the  idea  is  conveyed  without  liability  to  error, 
whereas  the  precedence  of  the  substantive  is  apt  to  pro- 
duce a  misconception ;  it  follows  that  the  one  gives  the 
mind  less  trouble  than  the  other,  and  is  therefore  more 
forcible. 

Possibly  it  will  be  objected  that  the  adjective  and 
substantive  come  so  close  together,  that  practically  they 
may  be  considered  as  uttered  at  the  same  moment ;  and 
that  on  hearing  the  phrase,  "  a  horse  black,"  there  is  not 
time  to  imagine  a  wrongly-coloured  horse  before  the  word 
"  black  "  follows  to  prevent  it.  It  must  be  owned  that  it 
is  not  easy  to  decide  by  introspection  whether  this  is  so 
or  not.     But  there  are  facts  collaterally  implying  that  it 


18  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   STYLE. 

is  not.  /Our  ability  to  anticipate  the  words  yet  unspoken 
is  one  of  them.  If  the  ideas  of  the  hearer  kept  considera- 
bly behind  the  expressions  of  the  speaker,  as  the  objection 
assumes,  he  could  hardly  foresee  the  end  of  a  sentence  by 
the  time  it  was  half  delivered :  yet  this  constantly  hap- 
pens. Were  the  supposition  true,  the  mind,  instead  of 
anticipating,  would  be  continually  falling  more  and  more 
in  arrear.  K  the  meanings  of  words  are  not  realized  as 
fast  as  the  words  are  uttered,  then  the  loss  of  time  over 
each  word  must  entail  such  an  accumulation  of  delays  as  to 
leave  a  hearer  entirely  behind.  But  whether  the  force  of 
these  replies  be  or  be  not  admitted,  it  will  scarcely  be  denied 
that  the  right  formation  of  a  picture  will  be  facilitated  by 
presenting  its  elements  in  the  order  in  which  they  are 
wanted ;  even  though  the  mind  should  do  nothing  until  it 
has  received  them  all. 

What  is  here  said  respecting  the  succession  of  the 
adjective  and  substantive  is  obviously  applicable,  by 
change  of  terms,  to  the  adverb  and  verb.  And  without 
further  explanation,  it  will  be  manifest,  that  in  the  use 
of  prepositions  and  other  particles,  most  languages  spon- 
taneously conform  with  more  or  less  completeness  to  this 
law. 

On  applying  a  like  analysis  to  the  larger  divisions  of  a 
sentence,  we  find  not  only  that  the  same  principle  holds 
good,  but  that  the  advantage  of  respecting  it  becomes 
marked.  In  the  arrangement  of  predicate  and  subject,  for 
example,  we  are  at  once  shown  that  as  the  predicate 
determines  the  aspect  under  which  the  subject  is  to  be 
conceived,  it  should  be  placed  first ;  and  the  striking  effect 
produced  by  so  placing  it  becomes  comprehensible.  Take 
the  often-quoted  contrast  between — "Great  is  Diana  of 
the  Ephesians,"  and — "  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  is  great." 
When  the  first  arrangement  is  used,  the  utterance  of  the 
word  "  great "  arouses  those  vague  associations  of  an  im- 


ARRANGEMENT  OF  PREDICATE  AND  SUBJECT.  19 

pressive  nature  with  which  it  has  been  habitually  connect- 
ed ;  the  imagination  is  prepared  to  clothe  with  high  attri- 
butes whatever  follows ;  and  when  the  words,  "Diana  of  the 
Ephesians,"  are  heard,  all  the  appropriate  imagery  which 
can,  on  the  instant,  be  summoned,  is  used  in  the  formation  of 
the  picture :  the  mind  being  thus  led  directly,  and  with- 
out error,  to  the  intended  impression.  When,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  reverse  order  is  followed,  the  idea,  "  Diana  of 
the  Ephesians,"  is  conceived  with  no  special  reference  to 
greatness ;  and  when  the  words,  "  is  great,"  are  added, 
the  conception  has  to  be  remodelled :  whence  arises  a  loss 
of  mental  energy,  and  a  corresponding  diminution  of 
effect.  The  following  verse  from  Coleridge's  "Ancient 
Mariner,"  though  somewhat  irregular  in  structure,  well 
illustrates  the  same  truth : 

"  Alone,  alone,  all,  all  alone, 
Alone  on  a  wide  wide  sea  ! 
And  never  a  saint  took  pity  on 
My  soul  in  agony." 

Of  course  the  principle  equally  applies  when  the  predi- 
.cate  is  a  verb  or  a  participle.  And  as  effect  is  gained  by 
placing  first  all  words  indicating  the  quality,  conduct,  or 
condition  of  the  subject,  it  follows  that  the  copula  also 
should  have  .precedence.  It  is  true,  that  the  general  habit 
of  our  language  resists  this  arrangement  of  predicate, 
copula,  and  subject ;  but  we  may  readily  find  instances  of 
the  additional  force  gained  by  conforming  to  it.  Thus  in 
the  line  from  "  Julius  Caesar  " — 

"  Then  hurst  this  mighty  heart," 

priority  is  given  to  a  word  embodying  both  predicate  and 
copula.  In  a  passage  contained  in  "  The  Battle  of  Flod- 
den  Field,"  the  like  order  is  systematically  employed  with 
great  effect : 


20  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   STYLE. 

"  The  Border  slogan  rent  tlie  sky  I 
A  Home !  a  Gordon  !  was  the  cry ; 
Loud  were  the  clanging  blows : 
Adtianced^— forced  lacTc^ — now  low,  now  Jiighj 

The  pennon  sunk  and  rose ; 
As  bends  the  bark's  mast  in  the  gale 
When  rent  are  rigging,  shrouds,  and  sail, 

It  wavered  'mid  the  foes." 

Pursuing  the  principle  yet  further,  it  is  obvious  that 
for  producing  the  greatest  effect,  not  only  should  the  main 
divisions  of  a  sentence  observe  this  sequence,  but  the  sub- 
divisions of  these  should  be  similarly  arranged.  In  nearly 
all  cases,  the  predicate  is  accompanied  by  some  limit  or 
qualification  called  its  complement.  Commonly,  also,  the 
circumstances  of  the  subject,  which  form  its  complement, 
have  to  be  specified.  And  as  these  qualifications  and  cir- 
cumstances must  determine  the  mode  in  which  the  acts 
and  things  they  belong  to  are  conceived,  precedence  should 
be  given  to  them.  Lord  Kaimes  notices  the  fact  that  this 
order  is  preferable;  though  without  giving  the  reason. 
He  says : — "  When  a  circumstance  is  placed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  period,  or  near  the  beginning,  the  transition 
from  it  to  the  principal  subject  is  agreeable :  is  like  as- 
cending or  going  upward."  A  sentence  arranged  in  illus- 
tration of  this  will  be  desirable.     Here  is  one : 

Whatever  it  may  be  in  theory,  it  is  clear  that  in 

practice  the  French  idea  of  liberty  is — the  right  of  every 
man  to  be  master  of  the  rest. 

In  this  case,  were  the  first  two  clauses,  up  to  the  word 
"  practice "  inclusive,  which  qualify  the  subject,  to  be 
placed  at  the  end  instead  of  the  beginning,  much  of  the 
force  would  be  lost ;  as  thus  : 

The  French  idea  of  liberty  is — the  right  of  every 

man  to  be  master  of  the  rest ;  in  practice  at  least,  if  not 
in  theory. 


OBDEB  OF  THE  PARTS  OF  SENTENCES.       21 

Similarly  with  respect  to  the  conditions  under  which 
any  fact  is  predicated.  Observe  in  the  following  example 
the  effect  of  putting  them  last : 

^How  immense  would  be  the  stimulus  to  progress, 

were  the  honour  now  given  to  wealth  and  title  given  ex- 
clusively to  high  achievements  and  intrinsic  worth ! 

And  then  observe  the  superior  effect  of  putting  them 
first : 

Were  the  honour  now  given  to  wealth  and  title 

given  exclusively  to  high  achievements  and  intrinsic  worth, 
how  immense  would  be  the  stimulus  to  progress  ! 

The  effect  of  giving  priority  to  the  complement  of  the 
predicate,  as  well  as  the  predicate  itself,  is  finely  displayed 
in  the  opening  of  "  Hyperion  " : 

"  Beep  in  the  shady  sadness  of  a  vale 
Far  sunken  from  the  healthy  hreath  of  morrhj 
Far  from  the  fiery  noon  and  eve^s  one  star 
Sat  gray-haired  Saturn,  quiet  as  a  stone." 

Here  it  will  be  observed,  not  only  that  the  predicate 
"  sat "  precedes  the  subject  "  Saturn,"  and  that  the  three 
lines  in  italics,  constituting  the  complement  of  the  predi- 
cate, come  before  it;  but  that  in  the  structure  of  that 
complement  also,  the  same  order  is  followed:  each  line 
being  so  arranged  that  the  qualifying  words  are  placed 
before  the  words  suggesting  concrete  images. 

The  right  succession  of  the  principal  and  subordinate 
propositions  in  a  sentence  manifestly  depends  on  the  same 
law.  Regard  for  economy  of  the  recipient's  attention, 
which,  as  we  find,  determines  the  best  order  for  the  sub- 
ject, copula,  predicate,  and  their  complements,  dictates 
that  the  subordinate  proposition  shall  precede  the  princi- 
pal one,  when  the  sentence  includes  two.  Containing,  as 
the  subordinate  proposition  does,  some  qualifying  or  ex- 
planatory idea,  its  priority  prevents  misconception  of  the 


22  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  STYLE. 

principal  one ;  and  therefore  saves  the  mental  effort  needed 
to  correct  such  misconception.  This  will  be  seen  in  the 
annexed  example. 

The  secresy  once  maintained  in  respect  to  the  par- 
liamentary debates,  is  still  thought  needful  in  diplomacy ; 
and  in  virtue  of  this  secret  diplomacy,  England  may  any 
day  be  unawares  betrayed  by  its  ministers  into  a  war  cost- 
ing a  hundred  thousand  lives,  and  hundreds  of  millions  of 
treasure:  yet  the  English  pique  themselves  on  being  a 
self-governed  people. 

The  two  subordinate  propositions,  ending  with  the 
semicolon  and  colon  respectively,  almost  wholly  determine 
tlie  meaning  of  the  principal  proposition  with  which  it 
concludes ;  and  the  effect  would  be  lost  were  they  placed 
last  instead  of  first. 

The  general  principle  of  right  arrangement  in  sen- 
tences, which  we  have  traced  in  its  application  to  the  lead- 
ing divisions  of  them,  equally  determines  the  proper  order 
of  their  minor  divisions.  In  every  sentence  of  any  com- 
plexity the  complement  to  the  subject  contains  several 
clauses,  and  that  to  the  predicate  several  others;  and 
these  may  be  arranged  in  greater  or  less  conformity  to  the 
law  of  easy  apprehension.  Of  course  with  these,  as  with 
the  larger  members,  the  succession  should  be  from  the  less 
specific  to  the  more  specific — from  the  abstract  to  the  con- 
crete. 

Now,  however,  we  must  notice  a  further  condition  to 
be  fulfilled  in  the  proper  construction  of  a  sentence ;  but 
still  a  condition  dictated  by  the  same  general  principle 
with  the  other:  the  condition,  namely, that  the  words  and 
expressions  most  nearly  related  in  thought  shall  be  brought 
the  closest  together.  Evidently  the  single  words,  the 
minor  clauses,  and  the  leading  divisions  of  every  proposi- 
tion, severally  qualify  each  other.  The  longer  the  time 
that  elapses  between  the  mention  of  any  qualifying  mem- 


COMBmnS'G  THE  MEMBERS  OF  A  SENTENCE.  2^ 

ber  and  the  member  qualified,  the  longer  must  the  mind 
be  exerted  in  carrying  forward  the  qualifying  member 
ready  for  use.  And  the  more  numerous  the  qualifications 
to  be  simultaneously  remembered  and  rightly  applied^ 
the  greater  will  be  the  mental  power  expended,  and  the 
smaller  the  effect  produced.  Hence,  other  things  equal, 
force  will  be  gained  by  so  arranging  the  members  of  a 
sentence  that  these  suspensions  shall  at  any  moment  be 
the  fewest  in  number ;  and  shall  also  be  of  the  shortest 
duration.  The  following  is  an  instance  of  defective  com- 
bination : 

A  modem  newspaper-statement,  though  probably 

true,  would  be  laughed  at,  if  quoted  in  a  book  as  testi- 
mony ;  but  the  letter  of  a  court  gossip  is  thought  good 
historical  evidence,  if  written  some  centuries  ago. 

A  rearrangement  of  this,  in  accordance  with  the  prin- 
ciple indicated  above,  will  be  found  to  increase  the  effect. 
Thus: 

Though  probably  true,  a  modern  newspaper-state- 
ment quoted  in  a  book  as  testimony,  would  be  laughed 
at ;  but  the  letter  of  a  court  gossip,  if  written  some  cen- 
turies ago,  is  thought  good  historical  evidence. 

By  making  this  change,  some  of  the  suspensions  are 
avoided  and  others  shortened ;  while  there  is  less  liability 
to  produce  premature  conceptions.  The  passage  quoted 
below  from  "  Paradise  Lost "  affords  a  fine  instance  of  a 
sentence  well  arranged ;  alike  in  the  priority  of  the  sub- 
ordinate members,  in  the  avoidairce  of  long  and  numerous 
-iSTiSpensions;-^nd~in  the  coirespondence  between  the  order 
of  the  clauses  and  the  sequence  of  the  phenomena  de- 
scribed, which,  by  the  way,  is  a  further  prerequisite  to 
easy  comprehension,  and  therefore  to  effect. 

**  As  when  a  prowling  wolf, 
Whom  hunger  drives  to  seek  new  haunt  for  prey, 


24  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   STYLE. 

Watching  where  shepherds  pen  their  flocks  at  eve  _. 

In  hurdled  cotes  amid  the  field  secure, 

Leaps  o'er  the  fence  with  ease  into  the  fold : 

Or  as  a  thief  bent  to  unhoard  the  cash 

Of  some  rich  burgher,  whose  substantial  doors, 

Oross-barr'd,  and  bolted  fast,  fear  no  assault, 

In  at  the  window  climbs,  or  o'er  the  tiles : 

So  clomb  the  first  grand  thief  into  God's  fold ; 

So  since  into  his  church  lewd  hirelings  climb." 

The  habitual  use  of  sentences  in  which  all  or  most  of 
the  descriptive  and  limiting  elements  precede  those  de- 
scribed and  limited,  gives  rise  to  what  is  called  the  in-^ 
yerted  style :  a  title  which  is,  however,  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  this  structure,  but  is  often  used  where  the  order 
of  the  words  is  simply  unusual.  A  more  appropriate  title 
would  be  the  direct  style,  as  contrasted  with  the  other,  or 
indirect  style :  the  peculiarity  of  the  one  being,  that  it 
conveys  eacli  thought  into  the  mind  step  by  step  with  lit- 
tle liability  to  error;  and  of  the  other,  that  it  gets  the 
right  thought  conceived  by  a  series  of  approximations. 

The  superiority  of  the  direct  over  the  indirect  form  of 
sentence,  implied  by  the  several  conclusions  that  have 
been  drawn,  must  not,  however,  be  aflSrmed  without  res- 
ervation. Though,  up  to  a  certain  point,  it  is  well  for  the 
qualifying  clauses  of  a  period  to  precede  those  qualified ; 
yet,  as  carrying  forward  each  qualifying  clause  costs  some 
mental  eflfort,  it  follows  that  when  the  number  of  them 
and  the  time  they  are  carried  become  great,  we  reach  a 
limit  beyond  which  more  is  lost  than  is  gained.  Other 
things  equal,  the  arrangement  should  be  such  that  no  con- 
crete image  shall  be  suggested  until  the  materials  out  of 
which  it  is  to  be  made  have  been  presented.  And  yet,  as 
lately  pointed  out,  other  things  equal,  the  fewer  the  ma- 
terials to  be  held  at  once,  and  the  shorter  the  distance 
they  have  to  be  borne,  the  better.    Hence  in  some  cases 


MUST   VARY   WITH   THE   MES^D   ADDRESSED.  25' 

it  becomes  a  question  whether  most  mental  effort  will  be 
entailed  by  the  many  and  long  suspensions,  or  by  the  cor- 
rection of  successive  misconceptions. 

This  question  may  sometimes  be  decided  by  consider- 
ing the  capacity  of  the  persons  addressed.  A  greater 
grasp  of  mind  is  required  for  the  ready  comprehension  of 
thoughts  expressed  in  the  direct  manner,  where  the  sen- 
tences are  anywise  intricate.  To  recollect  a  number  of 
preliminaries  stated  in  elucidation  of  a  coming  idea,  and 
to  apply  them  all  to  the  formation  of  it  when  suggested, 
demands  a  good  memory  and  considerable  power  of  con- 
centration. To  one  possessing  these,  the  direct  method 
will  mostly  seem  the  best ;  while  to  one  deficient  in  them 
it  will  seem  the  worst.  Just  as  it  may  cost  a  strong  man 
less  effort  to  carry  a  hundred-weight  from  place  to  place 
at  once,  than  by  a  stone  at  a  time ;  so,  to  an  active  mind 
it  may  be  easier  to  bear  along  all  the  qualifications  of  an 
idea  and  at  once  rightly  form  it  when  named,  than  to  first 
imperfectly  conceive  such  idea,  and  then  carry  back  to  it, 
one  by  one,  the  details  and  limitations  afterwards  men- 
tioned. While  conversely,  as  for  a  boy  the  only  possible 
mode  of  transferring  a  hundred-weight,  is  that  of  taking 
it  in  portions ;  so,  for  a  weak  mind,  the  only  possible  mode 
of  forming  a  compound  conception  may  be  that  of  build- 
ing it  up  by  carrying  separately  its  several  parts. 

That  the  indirect  method — the  method  of  conveying 
the  meaning  by  a  series  of  approximations — is  best  fitted 
for  the  uncultivated,  may  indeed  be  inferred  from  their 
habitual  use  of  it.  The  form  of  expression  adopted  by 
the  savage,  as  in — "  Water,  give  me,"  is  the  simplest  type 
of  the  approximate  arrangement.  In  pleonasms,  which 
are  comparatively  prevalent  among  the  uneducated,  the 
same  essential  structure  is  seen ;  as,  for  instance,  in — "  The 
men,  they  were  there."  Again,  the  old  possessive  case — 
"The  king,  his  crown,"  conforms  to  the  like  order  of 
2 


26  THE  PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

thought.  Moreover,  the  fact  that  the  indirect  mode  is 
called  the  natural  one,  implies  that  it  is  the  one  sponta- 
neously employed  by  the  common  people:  that  is — the 
one  easiest  for  undisciplined  minds. 

There  are  many  cases,  however,  in  which  neither  the 
direct  nor  the  indirect  structure  is  the  best ;  but  where  an 
intermediate  structure  is  preferable  to  both.  When  the 
number  of  circumstances  and  qualifications  to  be  included 
in  the  sentence  is  great,  the  most  judicious  course  is  nei- 
ther to  enumerate  them  all  before  introducing  the  idea  to 
which  they  belong,  nor  to  put  this  idea  first  and  let  it  be 
remodelled  to  agree  with  the  particulars  afterwards  men- 
tioned; but  to  do  a  little  of  each.  Take  a  case.  It  is 
desirable  to  avoid  so  extremely  indirect  an  arrangement 
as  the  following : 

"  We  came  to  our  journey's  end,  at  last,  with  no 

small  difficulty,  after  much  fatigue,  through  deep  roads, 
and  bad  weather." 

Yet  to  transfoi-m  this  into  an  entirely  kidirect  sentence 
would  not  produce  a  satisfactory  efiect ;  as  witness : — 

At  last,  with  no  small  difficulty,  after  much  fa- 
tigue, through  deep  roads,  and  bad  weather,  we  came  to 
our  journey's  end. 

Dr.  Whately,  from  whom  we  quote  the  first  of  these 
two  arrangements,  proposes  this  construction : — 

■5 "  At  last,  after  much  fatigue,  through  deep  roads 

and  bad  weather,  we  came,  with  no  small  difficulty,  to  our 
journey's  end." 

Here  it  will  be  observed  that  by  introducing  the  words 
"  we  came  "  a  little  earlier  in  the  sentence,  the  labour  of 
carrying  forward  so  many  particulars  is  diminished,  and 
the  subsequent  qualification  "with  no  small  difficulty" 
entails  an  addition  to  the  thought  that  is  very  easily  made. 
But  a  further  improvement  may  be  produced  by  intro- 
ducing the  words  "  we  canie  "  still  earlier ;  especially  if  at 


/ 


THE   ABSTEACT   SHOULD   PRECEDE   THE   CONCRETE.       27 

the  same  time  the  qualifications  be  rearranged  in  conform- 
ity with  the  principle  already  explained,  that  the  more 
abstract  elements  of  the  thought  should  come  before  the 
more  concrete.  Observe  the  better  efiect  obtained  by 
making  these  two  changes  : 

At  last,  with  no  small  difiiculty,  and  after  much 

fatigue,  we  came,  through  deep  roads  and  bad  weather,  to 
our  journey's  end. 

This  reads  with  comparative  smoothness;  that  is — 
with  less  hindrance  from  suspensions  and  reconstructions 
of  thought — with  less  mental  effort. 

Before  dismissing  this  branch  of  our  subject,  it  should 
be  further  remarked,  that  even  when  addressing  the  most 
vigorous  intellects,  the  dkect  style  is  unfit  for  communi- 
cating ideas  of  a  complex  or  abstract  character.  So  long 
as  the  mind  has  not  much  to  do,  it  may  be  well  able  to 
grasp  all  the  preparatory  clauses  of  a  sentence,  and  to  use 
them  effectively ;  but  if  some  subtlety  in  the  argument 
absorb  the  attention — if  every  faculty  be  strained  in  en- 
deavouring to  catch  the  speaker's  or  writer's  drift,  it  may 
happen  that  the  mind,  unable  to  carry  on  both  processes 
at  once,  will  break  down,  and  allow  the  elements  of  the 
thought  to  lapse  into  confusion. 

Turning  now  to  consider  figures  of  speech,  we  may 
equally  discern  the  same  general  law  of  effect.  Underlying 
all  the  rules  given  for  the  choice  and  right  use  of  them, 
we  shall  find  the  same  fundamental  requirement — ecQgp^tny 
of  attention.  It  is  indeed  chiefly  because  they  so  well 
siiBserve  tGis  requirement,  that  figures  of  speech  are  em- 
ployed. To  bring  the  mind  more  easily  to  the  desired 
conception,  is  in  many  cases  solely,  and  in  all  cases  mainly, 
their  object.  • 

Let  us  begin  with  the  figure  called  Synechdoche.  The 
advantage  sometimes  gained  by  putting  a  part  for  the 


28  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

whole,  is  due  to  the  more  convenient,  or  more  accurate, 
presentation  of  the  idea.  If,  instead  of  saying  "  a  fleet  of 
ten  ships,"  we  say  "  a  fleet  of  ten  sat7,"  the  picture  of  a 
group  of  vessels  at  sea  is  more  readily  suggested;  and  is  so 
because  the  sails  constitute  the  most  conspicuous  parts  of 
vessels  so  circumstanced :  whereas  the  word  ships  would 
very  likely  remind  us  of  vessels  in  dock.  Again,  to  say, 
"All  hands  to  the  pumps,"  is  better  than  to  say,  "All 
men  to  the  pumps ;"  as  it  suggests  the  men  in  the  special 
attitude  intended,  and  so  saves  effort.  Bringing  ''''gray 
hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave,"  is  another  expression,  the 
effect  of  which  has  the  same  cause. 

The  occasional  increase  of  force  produced  by  Metony- 
my may  be  similarly  accounted  for.  "  The  low  morality 
of  the  har^''  is  a  phrase  both  more  brief  and  significant 
than  the  literal  one  it  stands  for.  A  belief  in  the  ultimate 
supremacy  of  intelligence  over  brute  force,  is  conveyed  in 
a  more  concrete,  and  therefore  more  realizable  form,  if  we 
substitute  the  pen  and  the  sword  for  the  two  abstract 
terms.  To  say,  "  Beware  of  drinking !"  is  less  effective 
than  to  say,  "  Beware  of  the  bottle  /"  and  is  so,  clearly 
because  it  calls  up  a  less  specific  image. 

The  Simile  is  in  many  cases  used  chiefly  with  a  view 
;|  to  ornament ;  but  whenever  it  increases  ihe  force  of  a  pas- 
j  sage,  it  does  so  by  being  an  economy.     Here  is  an  instance : 

The  illusion  that  great  men  and  great  events  came 

oftener  in  early  times  than  now,  is  partly  due  to  historical 
perspective.  As  in  a  range  of  equidistant  columns,  the 
furthest  off  look  the  closest ;  so,  the  conspicuous  objects 
of  the  past  seem  more  thickly  clustered  the  more  remote 
they  are. 

To  construct  by  a  process  of  literal  explanation,  the 
thought  thus  conveyed,  would  take  many  sentences ;  and 
the  first  elements  of  the  picture  would  become  faint  while 
the  imagination  was  busy  in  adding  the  others.     But  by 


EFFECT   OF   FIGURES    OF    SPEECH.  29 

the  help  of  a  comparison  all  effort  is  saved ;  the  picture  is 
instantly  realized,  and  its  full  effect  produced. 

Of  the  position  of  the  Simile,*  it  needs  only  to  remark, 
that  what  has  been  said  respecting  the  order  of  the  ad- 
jective and  substantive,  predicate  and  subject,  principal 
and  subordinate  propositions,  &c.,  is  applicable  here.  As 
whatever  qualifies  should  precede  whatever  is  qualified, 
force  will  generally  be  gained  by  placing  the  simile  before 
the  object  to  which  it  is  applied.  That  this  arrangement 
is  the  best,  may  be  seen  in  the  following  passage  from  the 
"Lady  of  the  Lake":— 

"As  wreath  of  snow,  on  mountain  breast, 
Slides  from  the  rock  that  gave  it  rest, 
Poor  Ellen  glided  from  her  stay, 
And  at  the  monarch's  feet  she  lay."  y 

Inverting  these  couplets  will  be  found  to  diminish  the  ef- 
fect considerably.  There  are  cases,  however,  even  where 
the  simile  is  a  simple  one,  in  which  it  may  with  advantage 
be  placed  last ;  as  in  these  lines  from  Alexander  Smith's 
"  Life  Drama  "  :— 

"  I  see  the  future  stretch 
All  dark  and  barren  as  a  rainy  sea." 

The  reason  for  this  seems  to  be,  that  so  abstract  an 
idea  as  that  attaching  to  the  word  "  future,"  does  not  pre- 
sent itself  to  the  mind  in  any  de^ite  form ;  andj^hence 
the  subsequent  arrival  at  the  simile  ent^s  no  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  thought.  ^  v 

Such,  however,  are  not  the  only»caS^  in  which  this  or- 

*  Properly  the  term  "  simile  "  is  applicable  only  to  the  entire  figure,  in- 
clusive of  the  two  things  compared  and  the  comparison  drawn  between 
them.  But  as  there  exists  no  name  for  the  illustrative  member  of  the  fig- 
ure, there  seems  no  alternative  but  to  employ  "  simile  "  to  express  this  also. 
This  context  will  in  each  case  show  in  which  sense  the  word  is  used. 


80  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

der  is  the  most  forcible.  As  the  advantage  of  putting  the 
simile  before  the  object  depends  on  its  being  carried  for- 
ward in  the  mind  to  assist  in  forming  an  image  of  the  ob- 
ject ;  it  must  happen  that  if,  from  length  or  complexity, 
it  cannot  be  so  carried  forward,  the  advantage  is  not 
gained.  The  annexed  sonnet,  by  Coleridge,  is  defective 
from  this  cause : 

*'  As  when  a  child,  on  some  long  winter's  night, 
Affrighted,  clinging  to  its  grandam^s  knees, 
With  eager  wond'ring  and  perturb'd  delight 
Listens  strange  tales  of  fearful  dark  decrees, 
Mutter'd  to  wretch  by  necromantic  spell ; 
Or  of  those  hags  who  at  the  witching  time 
Of  murky  midnight,  ride  the  air  sublime, 
And  mingle  foul  embrace  with  fiends  of  heU  ; 
Cold  horror  drinks  its  blood !     Anon  the  tear 
More  gentle  starts,  to  hear  the  beldame  tell 
Of  pretty  babes,  that  lov'd  each  other  dear, 
Murder'd  by  cruel  uncle's  mandate  fell : 
Ev'n  such  the  shiv'ring  joys  thy  tones  impart, 
Ev'n  so,  thou,  Siddons,  meltest  my  sad  heart." 

Here,  from  the  lapse  of  time  and  accumulation  of  cir- 
cumstances, the  first  part  of  the  comparison  is  forgotten 
before  its  application  is  reached  ;  and  requires  re-reading. 
Had  the  main  idea  been  first  mentioned,  less  effort  would 
have  been  required  to  retain  it,  and  to  modify  the  concep- 
tion of  it  into  harmony  with  the  comparison,  than  to  re- 
member the  comparison,  and  refer  back  to  its  successive 
features  for  help  in  forming  the  final  image. 

The  superiority  of  the  Metaphor  to  the  Simile  is  as- 
cribed by  Dr.  Whately  to  the  fact  that  "  all  men  are  more 
gratified  at  catching  the  resemblance  for  themselves,  than 
in  having  it  pointed  out  to  them."  But  after  what  has 
been  said,  the  great  economy  it  achieves  will  seem  the 
more  probable  cause.     Lear's  exclamation — 


ECONO^nC    EFFECT   OF   THE   METAPHOR.  31 

"  Ingratitude  !  thou  marble-hearted  fiend," 
would  lose  part  of  its  effect  were  it  changed  into — 

"  Ingratitude !  thou  fiend  with  heart  hke  marble ;" 

and  the  loss  would  result  partly  from  the  position  of  the 
simile  and  partly  from  the  extra  number  of  words  required. 
When  the  comparison  is  an  involved  one,  the  greater  force 
of  the  metaphor,  consequent  on  its  greater  brevity,  be- 
comes much  more  conspicuous.  If,  drawing  an  analogy 
between  mental  and  physical  phenomena,  we  say, 

As,  in  passing  through  the  crystal,  beams  of  white 

light  are  decomposed  into  the  colours  of  the  rainbow ;  so, 
in  traversing  the  soul  of  the  poet,  the  colourless  rays  of 

tnith  are  transformed  into  brightly-tinted  poetry ; 

it  is  clear  that  in  receiving  the  double  set  of  words  ex- 
pressing the  two  halves  of  the  comparison,  and  in  carry- 
ing the  one  half  to  the  other,  considerable  attention  is 
absorbed.  Most  of  this  is  saved,  however,  by  putting  the 
comparison  in  a  metaphorical  form,  thus  : 

The  white  light  of  truth,  in  traversing  the  many- 
sided  transparent  soul  of  th.e  poet,  is  refracted  into  iris- 
hued  poetry. 

How  much  is^conveyed  in  a  few  words  by  the  help  of 
the  Metaphor,  and  how  vivid  the  effect  consequently  pro- 
duced, may  be  abundantly  exemplified.  From  "A  Life 
Drama  "  may  be  quoted  the  phrase, 

"  I  spear'd  him  with  a  jest," 

as  a  fine  instance  among  the  many  which  that  poem  con- 
tains. A  passage  in  the  "  Prometheus  Unbound,"  of  Shel- 
ley, displays  the  power  of  the  metaphor  to  great  advan- 
tage: 

"  Methought  among  the  lawns  together 
AVe  wandered,  underneath  the  young  gray  dawn. 
And  multitudes  of  dense  white  fleecy  clouds 


32  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

Were  wandering  in  thick  flocks  along  the  mountains 
SJiepTierded  by  the  slow  unwilling  wind." 

This  last  expression  is  remarkable  for  the  distinctness 
with  which  it  realizes  the  features  of  the  scene  :  bringing 
the  mind,  as  it  were,  by  a  bound  to  the  desired  conception. 
I  But  a  limit  is  put  to  the  advantageous  use  of  the  Meta- 
/  phor,  by  the  condition  that  it  must  be  sufficiently  simple 
to  be  understood  from  a  hint.  Evidently,  if  there  be  any 
obscurity  in  the  meaning  or  application  of  it,  no  economy 
of  attention  will  be  gained ;  but  rather  the  reverse. 
Hence,  when  the  comparison  is  complex,  it  is  usual  to 
have  recourse  to  the  Simile.  There  is,  however,  a  species 
of  figure,  sometimes  classed  under  Allegory,  but  which 
might,  perhaps,  be  better  called  Compound  Metaphor,  that 
enables  us  to  retain  the  brevity  of  the  metaphorical  form 
even  where  the  analogy  is  intricate.  This  is  done  by  indi- 
cating the  application  of  the  figure  at  the  outset,  and  then 
leaving  the  mind  to  continue  the  parallel.  Emerson  has 
employed  it  with  great  eflfect  in  the  first  of  his  "  Lectures 
on  the  Times  " :  i» 

"The  main  interest  which  any  aspects  of  the  Times  can  have 
for  us,  is  the  great  spirit  which  gazes  through  them,  the  light 
which  they  can  shed  on  the  wonderful  questions.  What  are  we, 
and  Whither  do  we  tend  ?  We  do  not  wish  to  be  deceived.  Hero 
we  drift,  like  white  sail  across  the  wild  ocean,  now  bright  on  the 
wave,  now  darkling  in  the  trough  of  the  sea ;  but  from  what  port 
did  we  sail?  Who  knows?  Or  to  what  port  are  we  bound? 
Who  knows  ?  There  is  no  one  to  tell  us  but  such  poor  weather- 
tossed  mariners  as  ourselves,  whom  we  speak  as  we  pass,  or  who 
have  hoisted  some  signal,  or  floated  to  us  some  letter  in  a  bottle 
from  afar.  But  what  know  they  more  than  we  ?  They  also  found 
themselves  on  this  wondrous  sea.  No;  from  the  older  sailors 
nothing.  Over  all  their  speaking-trumpets  the  gray  sea  and  the 
loud  winds  answer — N^ot  in  us ;  not  in  Time." 

The  division  of  the  Simile  from  the  Metaphor  is  by  no 


FIGUEES   CX)MPLETED  BY  THE  EEADEE.  33 

means  a  definite  one.  Between  the  one  extreme  in  which 
the  two  elements  of  the  comparison  are  detailed  at  full 
length  and  the  analogy  pointed  out,  and  the  other  extreme 
in  which  the  comparison  is  implied  instead  of  stated,  come 
intermediate  forms,  in  which  the  comparison  is  partly- 
stated  and  partly  implied.     For  instance ; 

Astonished  at  the  performances  of  the  English 

plough,  the  Hindoos  paint  it,  set  it  up,  and  worship  it ; 
thus  turninor  a  tool  into  an  idol:  lins^uists  do  the  same 
with  language. 

There  is  an  evident  advantage  in  leaving  the  reader  or 
hearer  to  complete  the  figure.  And  generally  these  inter- 
mediate forms  are  good  in  proportion  as  they  do  this ;  pro- 
vided the  mode  of  completing  it  be  obvious. 

Passing  over  much  that  may  be  said  of  like  purport  V 
upon  Hyperbole,  Personification,  Apostrophe,  &c.,  let  us 
close  our  remarks  upon  construction  by  a  typical  example. 
The  general  principle  which  has  been  enunciated  is,  that, 
other  things  equal,  the  force  of  all  verbal  forms  and  ar- 
rangements is  great,  in  proportion  as  the  time  and  mental 
efibrt  they  demand  from  the  recipient  is  small.  The  corol- 
laries from  this  general  principle  have  been  severally  illus- 
trated ;  and  it  has  been  shown  that  the  relative  goodness 
of  any  two  modes  of  expressing  an  idea,  may  be  deter- 
mined by  observing  which  requires  the  shortest  process  of 
thought  for  its  comprehension.  But  though  conformity 
in  particular  points  has  been  exemplified,  no  cases  of  com- 
plete conformity  have  yet  been  quoted.  It  is  indeed  diffi- 
cult to  find  them ;  for  the  English  idiom  does  not  com- 
monly permit  the  order  which  theory  dictates.  A  few, 
however,  occur  in  Ossian.     Here  is  one : 

"As  autumn's  dark  storms  pour  from  two  echoing  hills,  so 

towards  each  other  approached  the  heroes.     As  two  dark  streams 

from  high  rocks  meet  and  mix,  and  roar  on  the  plain :  loud,  rough, 

and  dark  in  battle  meet  Lochlin  and  Inisfail.    *    *    *    As  the 

2* 


34  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   STYLE. 

troubled  noise  of  the  ocean  when  roll  the  waves  on  high ;  as  the 
last  peal  of  the  thunder  of  heaven ;  such  is  noise  of  the  battle." 

Except  in  the  position  of  the  verb  in  the  first  two  sim- 
ilies,  the  theoretically  best  arrangement  is  fully  carried 
out  in  each  of  these  sentences.  The  simile  comes  before 
the  qualified  image,  the  adjectives  before  the  substantives, 
the  predicate  and  copula  before  the  subject,  and  their  re- 
spective complements  before  them.  That  the  passage  is 
open  to  the  charge  of  being  bombastic  proves  nothing ;  or 
rather,  proves  ourijiise.  For  what  is  bombast  but  a  force 
of  expression  too  great  for  the  magnitude  of  the  ideas  em- 
bodied ?  All  that  m-ay  rightly  be  inferred  is,  that  only  in 
very  rare  cases,  and  then  only  to  produce  a  climax,  should 
all  the  conditions  of  effective  expression  be  fulfilled. 

Passing  on  to  a  more  complex  application  of  the  doc- 
trine with  which  we  set  out,  it  must  now  be  remarked, 
that  not  only  in  the  structure  of  sentences,  and  the  use 
of  figures  of  speech,  may  economy  of  the  recipient's  men- 
tal energy  be  assigned  as  the  cause  of  force  ;  but  that  in 
the  choice  and  arrangement  of  the  minor  images,  out  of 
which  some  large  thought  is  to  be  built  up,  we  may  trace 
the  same  condition  to  effect.  /'To  select  from  the  senti- 
ment, scene,  or  event  described,  those  typical  elements 
which  carry  many  others  along  with  them ;  and  so,  by 
saying  a  few  things  but  suggesting  many,  to  abridge  the 
description ;  is  the  secret  of  producing  a  vivid  impression. 
An  extract  from  Tennyson's  "  Mariana "  will  well  illus- 
trate this : 

'  All  day  within  the  dreamy  house, 
The  door  upon  the  hinges  creaked, 
The  blue  fly  sung  i'  the  pane;  the  mouse 
Behind  the  mouldering  wainscot  shrieked,  ;, , 
Or  from  the  crevice  peered  about." 


THE   SECRET  OF  VIVID  IMPRESSIONS.  .35 

The  several  circumstances  here  specified  bring  with 
them  many  appropriate  associations.  Our  attention  is 
rarely  drawn  by  the  buzzing  of  a  fly  in  the  window,  save 
when  every  thing  is  still.  While  the  inmates  are  moving 
about  the  house,  mice  usually  keep  silence  ;  and  it  is  only 
when  extreme  quietness  reigns  that  they  peep  from  their 
retreats.  Hence  each  of  the  facts  mentioned,  presuppos- 
ing numerous  others,  calls  up  these  with  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctness ;  and  revives  the  feeling  of  dull  solitude  with 
which  they  are  connected  in  our  experience.  Were 
all  these  facts  detailed  instead  of  suggested,  the  atten- 
tion would  be  so  frittered  away  that  little  impression  of 
dreariness  would  be  produced.  Similarly  in  other  cases. 
AVhatever  the  nature  of  the  thought  to  be  Conveyed,  this 
skilful  selection  of  a  few  particulars  which  imply  the  rest, 
is  the  key  to  success.  In  the  choice  of  competent  ideas, 
as  in  the  choice  of  expressions,  the  aim  must  be  to  convey 
the  greatest  quantity  of  thoughts  with  the  smallest  quan- 
tity of  words. 

The  same  principle  may  in  some  cases  be  advanta- 
geously carried  yet  further,  by  indirectly  suggesting  some 
entirely  distinct  thought  in  addition  to  the  one  expressed. 
Thus  if  we  say, 

The  head  of  a  good  classic  is  as  full  of  ancient 

myths,  as  that  of  a  servant-girl  of  ghost  stories ; 
it  is  manifest  that  besides  the  fact  asserted,  there  is  an 
implied  opinion  respecting  the  small  value  of  classical 
knowledge :    and  as  this   implied   opinion  is   recognized 
much  sooner  than  it  can  be  put  into  words,  there  is  gain 
in  omitting  it.     In  other  cases,  again,  great  effect  is  pro-, 
duced  by  an  overt  omission ;  provided  the  nature  of  the  • 
idea  left  out  is  obvious.     A  good  instance  of  this  occurs 
in  "  Heroes  and  Hero-worship."     After  describing  the  way 
in  which  Burns  was  sacrificed  to  the  idle  curiosity  of 
Lion-hunters — people  who  came  not  out  of  sympathy  but 


36  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

merely  to  see  him — people  who  sought  a  little  amusement, 
and  who  got  their  amusement  Avhile  "  the  Hero's  life  went 
for  it !"  Carlyle  suggests  a  parallel  thus  : 

"  Richter  says,  in  the  Island  of  Sumatra  there  is  a  kind 
of  *  Light-chafers,'  large  Fire-flies,  which  people  stick  upon 
spits,  and  illuminate  the  ways  with  at  night.  Persons 
of  condition  can,  thus  travel  with  a  pleasant  radiance, 
which  they  much  admire.  Great  honour  to  the  Fire-flies ! 
But—!—" 

Before  inquiring  whether  the  law  of  efi*ect,  thus  far 
traced,  explains  the  superiority  of  poetry  to  prose,  it  will 
be  needful  to  notice  some  supplementary  causes  of  force 
in  expression,  that  have  not  yet  been  mentioned.  These 
are  not,  properly  speaking,  additional  causes ;  but  rather 
secondary  ones,  originating  from  those  already  specified — 
reflex  results  of  them.  In  the  first  place,  then,  we  may 
remark  that  mental  excitement  spontaneously  prompts  the 
use  of  those  forms  of  speech  which  have  been  pointed  out 
as  the  most  eflective.  "  Out  with  him !"  "  Away  with 
him !"  are  the  natural  utterances  of  angry  citizens  at  a 
disturbed  meeting.  A  voyager,  describing  a  terrible 
storm  he  had  witnessed,  would  rise  to  some  such  climax 
as — "  Crack  went  the  ropes  and  down  came  the  mast." 
Astonishment  may  be  heard  expressed  in  the  phrase — 
"  Never  was  there  such  a  sight !"  All  of  which  sentences 
are,  it  will  be  observed,  constructed  after  the  direct  type. 
Again,  every  one  knows  that  excited  persons  are  given  to 
figures  of  speech.  The  vituperation  of  the  vulgar  abounds 
with  them  :  often,  indeed,  consists  of  little  else.  "  Beast," 
"  brute,"  "  gallows  rogue,"  "  cut-throat  villain,"  these,  and 
other  like  metaphors  and  metaphorical  epithets,  at  once 
call  to  mind  a  street  quarrel.  Further,  it  may  be  noticed 
that  extreme  brevity  is  another  characteristic  of  passion- 
ate language.     The  sentences  are  generally  incomplete  ; 


PECULIAEITTES   OF   PASSIONATE  LANGUAGE.  37 

the  particles  are  omitted ;  and  frequently  important  words 
are  left  to  be  gathered  from  the  context.  Great  admira- 
tion does  not  vent  itself  in  a  precise  proposition,  as — "  It 
is  beautiful ;"  but  in  the  simple  exclamation, — "  Beauti- 
ful!"  He  who,  when  reading  a  lawyer's  letter,  should 
say,  "  Vile  rascal !"  would  be  thought  angry ;  while,  "  He 
is  a  vile  rascal,"  would  imply  comparative  coolness.  Thus 
we  see  that  alike  in  the  order  of  the  words,  in  the  fre- 
quent use  of  figures,  and  in  extreme  conciseness,  the  nat-  * 
ural  utterances  of  excitement  conform  to  the  theoretical  • 
conditions  of  forcible  expression. 

Hence,  then,  the  higher  forms  of  speech  acquire  a  sec* 
ondary  strength  from  association.  Having,  in  actual  life, 
habitually  heard  them  in  connection  with  vivid  mental 
impressions ;  and  having  been  accustomed  to  meet  with 
them  in  the  most  powerful  writing  ;  they  come  to  have  in 
themselves  a  species  of  force.  The  emotions  that  have 
from  time  to  time  been  produced  by  the  strong  thoughts 
wrapped  up  in  these  forms,  are  partially  aroused  by  the  . 
forms  themselves.  They  create  a  certain  degree  of  anima- 
tion ;  they  induce  a  preparatory  sympathy ;  and  when  the 
striking  ideas  looked  for  are  reached,  they  are  the  more 
vividly  realized. 

The  continuous  use  of  these  modes  of  expression  that 
are  alike  forcible  in  themselves  and  forcible  from  their- 
associations,  produces  the  peculiarlvirapressive  species  of' 
composition  which  we  call  poetry.  \  Poetry,  we  shall  find, 
habitually  adopts  those  symbols  of  thought,  and  those 
methods  of  using  them,  which  instinct  and  analysis  agree 
in  choosing  as  most  effective  ;  and  becomes  poetry  by  vir- 
tue of  doing  this.     On  turning  back  to  the  various  speci- 
mens that  have  been  quoted,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  direct . 
or  inverted  form  of  sentence  predominates  in  them  ;  and  ' 
that  to  a  degree  quite  inadmissible  in  prose.     And  not 
only  in  the  frequency,  but  in  what  is  termed  the  violence 


38  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

of  the  inversions,  will  this  distinction  be  remarked.  In 
the  abundant  use  of  figures,  again,  we  may  recognize  the 
same  truth,  j  Metaphors,  similes,  hyperboles,  and  personi- 
ficatibris,  ai-e  the  poet's  colours,  which  he  has  liberty  to 
employ  almost  without  limit.  We  characterize  as  "  poet- 
ical "  the  prose  which  uses  these  appliances  of  language 

'  with  any  frequency ;  and  condemn  it  as  "  over  florid "  or 
"  aiFected  "  long  before  they  occur  with  the  profusion  al- 
lowed in  verse.     Further,  let  it  be  remarked  that  in  brev- 

.    ity — the  other  requisite  of  forcible  expression  which  theory 

»  points  out,  and  emotion  spontaneously  fulfils — ^poetical 
phraseology  similarly  differs  from  ordinary  phraseology. 
Imperfect  periods  are  frequent ;  elisions  are  perpetual ;  and 
many  of  the  minor  words,  which  would  be  deemed  essen- 
tial in  prose,  are  dispensed  with. 

'  Thus  poetry,  regarded  as  a  vehicle  of  thought,  is  espe- 
cially impressive  partly  because  it  obeys  all  the  laws  of 
effective  speech,  and  partly  because  in  so  doing  it  imitates 
the  natural  utterances  of  excitement.  While  the  matter 
,  embodied  is  idealized  emotion,  the  vehicle  is  the  idealized 
.  language  of  emotion.  As  the  musical  composer  catches 
the  cadences  in  which  our  feelings  of  joy  and  sympathy, 
grief  and  despair,  vent  themselves,  and  out  of  these  germs 
evolves  melodies  suggesting  higher  phases  of  these  feel- 
ings ;  so,  the  poet  developes  from  the  typical  expressions 
in  which  men  utter  passion  and  sentiment,  those  choice 
forms  of  verbal  combination  in  which  concentrated  passion 

\  and  sentiment  may  be  fitly  presented. 
;  -  There  is  one  peculiarity  of  poetry  conducing  much  to 
its  effect — the  peculiarity  which  is  indeed  usually  thought 
its  characteristic  one — still  remaining  to  be  considered: 
we  mean  its  rhythmical  structure.  This,  improbable 
though  it  seems,  will  be  found  to  come  under  the  same 
generalization  Avith  the  others.     Like  each  of  them,  it  is 

f  an  idealization  of  the  natural  language  of  strong  emotion, 


CHAEACTEEISTICS   OF   RHYTHMICAL   EXPRESSION.         39 

which  is  known  to  be  more  or  less  metrical  if  the  emotion 
be  not  too  violent ;  and  like  each  of  them.it  is  an  economy 
of  the  reader's  or  hearer's  attention.  In  the  peculiar  tone 
and  manner  we  adopt  injitLeriiig_ieiiisifi£d_language,  may- 
be discerned  its  relationship  to  the  feelings  ;  and  the  pleas- 
ure which  its  measured  movement  gives  us,  is  ascribable 
to  the  comparative  ease  with  which  words  metrically  ar- 
ranged can  be  recognized. 

This  last  position  will  scarcely  be  at  once  admitted ; 
but  a  little  explanation  will  show  its  reasonableness.  For 
if,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  an  expenditure  of  mental 
energy  in  the  mere  act  of  listening  to  verbal  articulations, 
or  in  that  silent  repetition  of  them  which  goes  on  in  read- 
ing— if  the  perceptive  faculties  must  be  in  active  exercise 
to  identify  every  syllable — then,  any  mode  of  so  com- 
bining words  as  to  present  a  regular  recurrence  of  certain 
traits  which  the  mind  can  anticipate,  will  diminish  that 
strain  upon  the  attention  required  by  the  total  irregular- 
ity of  prose.  Just  as  the  body,  in  receiving  a  series  of 
varying  concussions,  must  keep  the  muscles  ready  to  meet 
the  most  violent  of  them,  as  not  knowing,  when  such  may 
come ;  so,  the  mind  in  receiving  unarranged  articulations, 
must  keep  its  perceptives  active  enough  to  recognize  the 
least  easily  caught  sounds.  And  as,  if  the  concussions 
recur  in  a  definite  order,  the  body  may  husband  its  forces 
by  adjusting  the  resistance  needful  for  each  concussion ; 
so,  if  the  syllables  be  rhythmically  arranged,  the  mind 
may  economize  its  energies  by  anticipating  the  attention 
required  for  each  syllable. 

Far-fetched  though  this  idea  will  perhaps  be  thought, 
a  little  introspection  will  countenance  it.  That  we  do 
take  advantage  of  metrical  language  to  adjust  our  percep- 
tive faculties  to  the  force  of  the  expected  articulations,  is 
clear  from  the  fict  that  we  arc  balked  by  halting  versifi- 
cation.    Much  as  at  the  bottom  of  a  flight  of  stairs,  a  step 


40  THE  PHILOSOPHT   OF   STYLE. 

more  or  less  than  we  counted  upon  gives  us  a  shock  ;  so, 
too,  does  a  misplaced  accent  or  a  supernumerary  syllable. 
In  the  one  case,  we  know  that  there  is  an  erroneous  pre- 
adjustment ;  and  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  there  is  one 
in  the  other.  But  if  we  habitually  preadjust  our  percep- 
tions to  the  measured  movement  of  verse,  the  physical 
analogy  above  given  renders  it  probable  that  by  so  doing 
we  economize  attention ;  and  hence  that  metrical  language 
is  more  effective  than  prose,  because  it  enables  us  to  do 
this. 

Were  there  space,  it  might  be  worth  while  to  inquire 
whether  the  pleasure  we  take  in  rhyme,  and  also  that 
which  we  take  in  euphony,  are  not  partly  ascribable  to 
the  same  general  cause. 

A  few  paragraphs  only,  can  be  devoted  to  a  second 
division  of  our  subject  that  here  presents  itself.  To  pur- 
sue in  detail  the  laws  of  effect,  as  applying  to  the  larger 
features  of  composition,  would  carry  us  beyond  our  lim- 
its. But  we  may  briefly  indicate  a  further  aspect  of  the 
general  principle  hitherto  traced  out,  and  hint  a  few  of  its 
wider  applications. 

Thus  far,  then,  we  have  considered  only  those  causes 
of  force  in  language  which  depend  upon  economj:  of  the 
mental  energies:  we  have  now  to  glance  at  those  w  hie  1 1 
depend  upon  economy  of  the  mental  sensibilities.  Ques- 
tionable though  this  division  may  be  as  a  psychological 
one,  it  will  yet  serve  roughly  to  indicate  the  remaining 
field  of  investigation.  It  will  suggest  that  besides  consid- 
ering the  extent  to  which  any  faculty  or  group  of  faculties 
is  tasked  in  receiving  a  form  of  words  and  realizing  its 
contained  idea,  we  have  to  consider  the  state  in  which 
this  faculty  or  group  of  faculties  is  left ;  and  how  the 
reception  of  subsequent  sentences  and  images  will  be  influ- 
enced by  that  state.     Without  going  at  length  into  so 


ECONOMY   OF   THE   MENTAL   SENSIBILITIES.  41 

wide  a  topic  as  the  exercise  of  faculties  and  its  reactive 
effectSjUt  will  be  sufficient  here  to  call  to  mind  that  every 
faculty  (when  in  a  state  of  norjnal  activity)  is  most  capa- 
ble at  the  outset ;  and  that  the  change  in  its  condition, 
which  ends  in  what  we  term  exhaustion,  begins  simulta- 
neously with  its  exercise.  This  generalization,  with  which 
we  are  all  familiar  in  our  bodily  experiences,  and  which 
our  daily  language  recognizes  as  true  of  the  mind  as  a 
whole,  yis  equally  true  of  each  mental  power,  from  the 
simplest  of  the  senses  to  the  most  complex  of  the  senti- 
ments. If  we  hold  a  flower  to  the  nose  for  long,  we  be- 
come insensible  to  its  scent.  We  say  of  a  very  brilliant 
flash  of  lightning  that  it  blinds  us  ;  which  means  that  our 
eyes  have  for  a  time  lost  their  ability  to  appreciate  light. 
After  eating  a  quantity  of  honey,  we  are  apt  to  think  our 
tea  is  without  sugar.  The  phrase  "  a  deafening  roar,"  im- 
plies that  men  find  a  very  loud  sound  temporarily  incapa- 
citates them  for  hearing  faint  ones.  To  a  hand  which  has 
for  some  time  carried  a  heavy  body,  small  bodies  after- 
wards lifted  seem  to  have  lost  their  weight.  Now,  the 
truth  at  once  recognized  in  these,  its  extreme  manifesta- 
tions, may  be  traced  throughout.  It  may  be  shown  that 
alike  in  the  reflective  faculties,  in  the  imagination,  in  the 
perceptions  of  the  beautiful,  the  ludicrous,  the  sublime,  in 
the  sentiments,  the  instincts,  in  all  the  mental  powers, 
however  we  may  classify  them — action  exhausts  ;  and  that 
in  proportion  as  the  action  is  violent,  the  subsequent  pros- 
tration is  great. 

Equally,  throughout  the  whole  nature,  may  be  traced 
the  law  that  exercised  faculties  are  ever  tending  to  resume 
their  original  state.  Not  only  after  continued  rest,  do 
they  regain  their  full  power — not  only  do  brief  cessations 
partially  reinvigorate  them ;  but  even  while  they  are  in 
action,  the  resulting  exhaustion  is  ever  being  neutralized. 
The  two  processes  of  waste  and  repair  go  on  together. 


42  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

Hence  with  faculties  habitually  exercised — as  the  senses 
of  all  persons,  or  the  muscles  of  any  one  who  is  strong — 
it  happens  that,  during  moderate  activity,  the  repaii*  is  so 
nearly  equal  to  the  waste,  that  the  diminution  of  power  is 
scarcely  appreciable  ;  and  it  is  only  when  the  activity  has 
been  long  continued,  or  has  been  very  violent,  that  the 
repair  becomes  so  far  in  arrear  of  the  waste  as  to  produce 
a  perceptible  prostration.  In  all  cases,  however,  when, 
by  the  action  of  a  faculty,  waste  has  been  incurred,  some 
lapse  of  time  must  take  place  before  full  efficiency  can  be 
reacquired ;  and  this  time  must  be  long  in  proportion  as 
the  waste  has  been  great. 

Keeping  in  mind  these  general  truths,  we  shall  be  in  a 
condition  to  understand  certain  causes  of  effect  in  compo- 
sition jiow  to  be  considered; '  Every  perception  received, 
ancTevery  conception  realized,  entailing  some  amount  of 
waste — or,  as  Liebig  would  say,  some  change  of  matter  in 
the  brain ;  and  the  efficiency  of  the  faculties  subject  to 
this  waste  being  thereby  temporarily,  though  often  but 
momentarily,  diminished ;  the  resulting  partial  inability 
must  affect  the  acts  of  perception  and  conception  that  im- 
mediately succeed.-  And  hence  we  may  expect  that  the 
vividness  with  which  images  are  realized  will,  in  many 
cases,  depend  on  the  order  of  their  presentation :  even 
when  one  order  is  as  convenient  to  the  understanding  as 
the  other. 

There^rejundry^actSAvhich  alike  illustrate  this,  and 
arejexplained  bj^  jt.  Climax  is  one  of  them.  The  marked 
effect  obtained  by  placing  last  the  most  striking  of  any 
series  of  images,  and  the  weakness — often  the  ludicrous 
weakness — produced  by  reversing  this  arrangement,  de- 
pends on  the  general  law  indicated.  As  immediately  after 
looking  at  the  sun  we  cannot  perceive  the  light  of  a  fire, 
while  by  looking  at  the  fire  first  and  the  sun  afterwards 
we  can  perceive  both;  so,  after  receiving  a. brilliant,  or 


EXPLANATION   OF   CLIMAX.  43 

weighty,  or  terrible  thought,  we  cannot  appreciate  a  less 
brilliant,  less  weighty,  or  less  terrible  one,  while,  by  re- 
versing the  order,  we  can  appreciate  each.  In  Antithesis, 
again,  we  may  recognize  the  same  general  truth.  The 
opposition  of  two  thoughts  that  are  the  reverse  of  each 
otlier  in  some  prominent  trait,  insures  an  impressive  effect ; 
and  does  this  by  giving  a  momentary  relaxation  to  the  , 
faculties  addressed.  If,  after  a  series  of  images  of  an  ordi- 
nary character,  appealing  in  a  moderate  degree  to  the 
sentiment  of  reverence,  or  approbation,  or  beauty,  the 
mind  has  presented  to  it  a  very  insignificant,  a  very  un- 
worthy, or  a  very  ugly  image';  the  faculty  of  reverence, 
or  approbation,  or  beauty,  as  the  case  may  be,  having  for 
the  time  nothing  to  do,  tends  to  resume  its  full  power;  and 
will  immediately  afterwards  appreciate  a  vast,-  admiralble^ 
or  beautiful  image  better  than  it  would  otherwise  do. 
Conversely,  where  the  idea  of  absurdity  due  to  extreme 
insignificance  is  to  be  produced,  it  may  be  greatly  intensi- 
fied by  placing  it  after  something  highly  impressive  :  espe- 
cially if  the  form  of  phrase  implies  that  something  still 
more  impressive  is  coming.  A  good  illustration  of  the 
effect  gained  by  thus  presenting  a  petty  idea  to  a  con- 
sciousness that  has  not  yet  recovered  from  the  shock  of 
an  exciting  one,  occurs  in  a  sketch  by  Balzac.  His  hero 
writes  to  a  mistress  who  has  cooled  towards  him,  the  fol- 
lowing letter : 

"Madame, — ^Yotre  conduite  m'^tonne  autant  qu'elle 
m'afflige.  Non  contente  de  me  dechirer  le  coeur  par  vos 
dedains,  vous  avez  I'indelicatesse  de  me  retenir  une  brosse 
h  dents,  que  mes  moyens  ne  me  permettent  pas  de  rempla- 
cer,  mes  proprietes  etant  grevees  d'hypoth^ques. 

"  Adieu,  trop  belle  et  trop  ingrate  amie !  Puissions- 
nous  nous  revoir  dans  un  monde  meilleur!-  " 

"  Ciiakles-Edouard." 

Thus  we  see  that  the  phenomena  of  Climax,  Antithesis, 


44:  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   STYLE. 

and  Anticlimax,  alike  result  from  this  general  principle. 
Improbable  as  these  momenta^  variations  in  susceptibil- 
ity may  seem,  we  cannot  doubt  their  occurrence  when  we 
contemplate  the  analogous  variations  in  the  susceptibility 
of  the  senses.  Referring  once  more  to  phenomena  of  vis- 
ion, every  one  knows  that  a  patch  of  black  on  a  white 
ground  looks  blacker,  and  a  patch  of  white  on  a  black 
ground  looks  whiter,  than  elsewhere.  As  the  blackness 
and  the  whiteness  must  really  be  the  same,  the  only  assign- 
able cause  for  this,  is  a  difference  in  their  actions  upon  us, 
dependent  upon  the  different  states  of  our  faculties.  It  is 
simply  a  visual  antithesis. 

But  this  extension  of  the  general  principle  of  economy 
— this  further  condition  to  effective  composition,  that  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  faculties  must  be  continuously  hus- 
banded— includes  much  more  than  has  been  yet  hinted. 
It  implies  not  only  that  certain  arrangements  and  certain 
juxtapositions  of  connected  ideas  are  best ;  but  that  some 
modes  of  dividing  and  presenting  a  subject  will  be  more 
striking  than  others ;  and  that,  too,  irrespective  of  its  log- 
ical cohesion.  It  shows  why  we  must  progress  from  the 
less  interesting  to  the  more  interesting ;  and  why  not  only 
the  composition  as  a  whole,  but  each  of  its  successive  por- 
tions, should  tend  towards  a  climax.  At  the  same  time, 
it  forbids  long  continuity  of  the  same  kind  of  thought,  or 
repeated  production  of  like  effects.  It  warns  us  against 
the  error  committed  both  by  Pope  in  his  poems  and  by 
Bacon  in  his  essays — the  error,  namely,  of  constantly  em- 
ploying forcible  forms  of  expression :  and  it  points  out 
that  as  the  easiest  posture  by~arid  by  becomes  fatiguing, 
and  is  with  pleasure  exchanged  for  one  less  easy ;  so,  the 
most  perfectly-constructed  sentences  will  soon  weary,  and 
relief  will  be  given  by  using  those  of  an  inferior  kind. 

Further,  we  may  infer  from  it  not  only  that  should  w» 
avoid  generally  combining  our  words  in  one  manner,  how- 


rr   CORRESPONDS   TO    HABITS   OF   THOUGHT.  45 

ever  good,  or  working  out  our  figures  and  illustrations  in 
one  way,  however  telling ;  but  that  we  should  avoid  any- 
thing like  uniform  adherence,  even  to  the  wider  conditions 
of  effect.  We  should  not  make  every  section  of  our  sub- 
ject progress  in  interest ;  we  should  not  always  rise  to  a 
climax.  As  we  saw  that,  in  single  sentences,  it  is  but 
rarely  allowable  to  fulfil  all  the  conditions  to  strength ; 
so,  in  the  larger  sections  of  a  composition  we  must  not 
often  conform  entirely  to  the  law  indicated.  We  must 
subordinate  the  component  effect  to  the  total  effect. 

In  deciding  how  practically  to  carry  out  the  principles 
of  artistic  composition,  we  may  derive  help  by  bearing  in 
mind  a  fact  already  pointed  out — the  fitness  of  certain) 
verbal  arrangements  for  certain  kinds  of  thought.  That  . 
constant  variety  in  the  mode  of  presenting  ideas  which 
the  theory  demands,  will  in  a  great  degree  result  from  a  " 
skilful  adaptation  of  the  form  to  the  matter.  We  saw 
how  the  direct  or  inverted  sentence  is  spontaneously  used 
by  excited  people ;  and  how  their  language  is  also  charac- 
terized by  figures  of  speech  and  by  extreme  brevity. 
Hence  these  may  with  advantage  predominate  in  emo- 
tional passages;  and  may  increase  as  the  emotion  rises. 
On  the  other  hand,  for  complex  ideas,  the  indirect  sen-  • 
teuce  seems  the  best  vehicle.  In  conversation,  the  excite- 
ment produced  by  the  near  approach  to  a  desired  conclu- 
sion, will  often  show  itself  in  a  series  of  short,  sharp  sen- 
tences ;  while,  in  impressing  a  view  already  enunciated, 
we  •  generally  make  our  periods  voluminous  by  piling 
thought  upon  thought.  These  natural  modes  of  procedure 
may  serve  as  guides  in  writing.  Keen  observation  and 
skilful  analysis  would,  in  like  manner,  detect  further  pecu- 
liarities of  expression  produced  by  other  attitudes  of  mind; 
and  by  paying  due  attention  to  all  such  traits,  a  writer 
possessed  of  sufficient  versatility  might  make  some  ap- 
proach to  a  completely-organized  work. 


46  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   STYLE. 

f 

This  species  of  composition  which  the  law  of  effect 
points  out  as  the  perfect  one,  is  the  one  which  high  genius 
tends  naturally  to  produce.  As  we  found  that  the  kinds 
of  sentence  which  are  theoretically  best,  are  those  gener- 
ally employed  by  superior  minds,  and  by  inferior  minds 
when  excitement  has  raised  them ;  so,  we  shall  find  that 
the  ideal  form  for  a  poem,  essay,  or  fiction,  is  that  which 
the  ideal  writer  would  evolve  spontaneously.  One  in 
whom  the  powers  of  expression  fully  responded  to  the 
state  of  feeling,  would  unconsciously  use  that  variety  in 
the  mode  of  presenting  his  thoughts,  which  Art  demands. 
This  constant  employment  of  one  species  of  phraseology, 
which  all  have  now  to  strive  against,  implies  an  undevel- 
oped faculty  of  language.  JTo  have  a  specific  style  is  to 
be  poor  in  speech.  If  we  remember  that  in  the  far  past, 
men  had  only  nouns  and  verbs  to  convey  their  ideas  with, 
and  that  from  then  to  now  the  growth  has  been  towards 
a  greater  number  of  implements  of  thought,  and  conse- 
quently towards  a  greater  complexity  and  variety  in  their 
combinations ;  we  may  infer  that  we  are  now,  in  our  use 
of  sentences,  much  what  the  primitive  man  was  in  his  use 
of  words ;  and  that  a  continuance  of  the  process  that  has 
hitherto  gone  on,  must  pro^u^e  increasing  heterogeneity 
in  our  modes  of  expression^  As  now,  in  a  fine  nature,  the 
play  of  the  features,  the  to!les  of  the  voice  and  its  ca- 
dences, vary  in  harmony  with  every  thought  uttered ;  so, 
in  one  possessed  of  a  fully-developed  power  of  speech,  the 
mould  in  which  each  combination  of  words  is  cast  will 
similarly  vary  with,  and  be  appropriate  to  the  sentiment. 

That  a  perfectly-endowed  man  must  unconsciously 
write  in  all  styles,  we  may  infer  from  considering  how 
styles  originate.  Why  is  Johnson  pompous.  Goldsmith 
simple  ?  Why  is  one  author  abrupt,  another  rhythmical, 
another  concise?  Evidently  in  each  case  the  habitual 
mode  of  utterance  must  depend  upon  the  habitual  balance 


STYLE  VARIES   WITH   STATES   OF  FEELING.  47 

of  the  nature.  The  predominant  feelings  have  by  use  - 
trained  the  intellect  to  represent  them.  But  while  long,  * 
though  unconscious,  discipline  has  made  it  do  this  effi- 
ciently, it  remains,  from  lack  of  practice,  incapable  of 
doing  the  same  for  the  less  active  feelings ;  and  when 
these  are  excited,  the  usual  verbal  forms  undergo  but 
slight  modifications.  Let  the  powers  of  speech  be  fully/ 
developed,  however — let  the  ability  of  the  intellect  td 
utter  the  emotions  be  complete ;  and  this  fixity  of  styl^ 
will  disappear.  The  perfect  writer  will  express  himself 
as  Junius,  when  in  the  Junius  frame  of  mind ;  when  he 
feels  as  Lamb  felt,  will  use  a  like  familiar  speech ;  and  will 
fall  into  the  ruggedness  of  Carlyle  when  in  a  Carlylean 
mood.  Now  he  will  be  rhythmical  and  now  irregular; 
here  his  language  will  be  plain  and  there  ornate ;  some- 
times his  sentences  will  be  balanced  and  at  other  times 
unsymmetrical ;  for  a  while  there  will  be  considerable 
sameness,  and  then  again  great  variety.  His  mode  of 
expression  naturally  responding  to  his  state  of  feeling, 
there^  will  flow  from  his  pen  a  composition  changing  to  . 
the  same  degree  that  the  aspects  of  his  subject  change. 
He  will  thus  without  efibrt  conform  to  what  we  have  seen 
to  be  the  laws  of  effect.  And  while  his  work  presents  to 
the  reader  that  variety  needful  to  prevent  continuous 
exertion  of  the  same  faculties,  it  will  also  answer  to  the 
description  of  all  highly-organized  products,  both  of  man 
and  of  nature :  it  will  be,  not  a  series  of  like  parts  simply 
placed  in  juxtaposition,  but  one  whole  made  up  of  unlike 
parts  that  are  mutually  dependent^- 


II. 

OVER-LEGISLATION* 


FROM  time  to  time  there  returns  upon  the  cautious 
thinker,  the  conclusion  that,  considered  simply  as  a 
question  of  probabilities,  it  is  decidedly  unlikely  that  his 
views  upon  any  debatable  topic  are  correct.  "  Here,"  he 
reflects,  "  are  thousands  around  me  holding  on  this  or  that 
point  opinions  differing  from  mine — wholly  in  most  cases ; 
partially  in  the  rest.  Each  is  as  confident  as  I  am  of  the 
truth  of  his  convictions.  Many  of  them  are  possessed  of 
great  intelligence ;  and,  rank  myself  high  as  I  may,  I  must 
admit  that  some  are  my  equals — perhaps  my  superiors. 
( Yet,  while  every  one  of  us  is  sure  he  is  right,  unquestiona- 
bly most  of  us  are  wrongJ  Why  should  not  I  be  among 
the  mistaken  ?  True,  I  cjmnot  realize  the  likelihood  that 
I  am  so.  But  this  proves  nothing ;  for  though  the  majori- 
ty of  us  are  necessarily  in  error,  we  all  labour  under  the 

*  Some  of  the  illustrations  used  in  this  essay  refer  to  laws  and  arrange- 
ments since  changed ;  while  many  recent  occurences  might  now  be  cited 
in  further  aid  of  its  argument.  As,  however,  the  reasoning  is  not  affected 
by  these  changes ;  and  as  to  keep  it  corrected  to  the  facts  of  the  day  would 
'  involve  perpetual  alterations ;  it  seems  best  to  leave  it  substantially  in  its 
original  state :  or  rather  in  the  state  in  which  it  was  republished  in  Mr. 
Chapman's  "  Library  for  the  People." 


DISTRUST   OF   OUR   OPINIONS.  49 

inability  to  think  we  are  in  error.  Is  it  not  then  foolish 
thus  to  trust  myself?  When  I  look  back  into  the  past,  I 
find  nations,  sects,  philosophers,  cherishing  beliefs  in  sci- 
ence, morals,  politics,  and  religion,  which  we  decisively 
reject.  Yet  they  held  them  with  a  faith  quite  as  strong 
as  ours :  nay — stronger,  if  their  intolerance  of  dissent  is 
any  criterion.  Of  what  little  worth,  therefore,  seems  this 
strength  of  my  conviction  that  I  am  right !  A  like  war- 
rant has  been  felt  by  men  all  the  world  through ;  and,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  has  proved  a  delusive  warrant.  Is 
it  not  then  absurd  in  me  to  put  so  much  faith  in  my  judg- 
ments ?" 

Barren  of  practical  results  as  this  reflection  at  first 
sight  appears,  it  may,  and  indeed  should,  influence  some 
of  our  most  important  proceedings.  Though  in  daily  life 
we  are  constantly  obliged  to  act  out  our  inferences,  trust- 
less as  they  may  be — though  in  the  house,  in  the  office,  in 
the  street,  there  hourly  arise  occasions  on  which  we  may 
not  hesitate ;  seeing  that  if  to  act  is  dangerous,  never  to 
act  at  all  is  fatal — and  though,  consequently,  on  our  pri- 
vate conduct,  this  abstract  doubt  as  to  the  worth  of  our 
judgments,  must  remain  inoperative ;  yet,  in  our  public 
conduct,  we  may  properly  allow  it  to  weigh  with  us. 
Here  decision  is  no  longer  imperative ;  while  the  difficulty 
of  deciding  aright  is  incalculably  greater.  Clearly  as  we 
may  think  we  see  how  a  given  measure  will  work,  we 
may  infer,  drawing  the  above  induction  from  human  ex- 
perience, that  the  chances  are  many  against  the  truth 
of  our  anticipations.  Whether  in  most  cases  it  is  not 
wiser  to  do  nothing,  becomes  now  a  rational  question. 

Continuing  his  self-criticism,  the  cautious  thinker  may 
reason : — "  If  in  these  personal  transactions,  where  all  the 
conditions  of  the  case  were  known  to  me,  I  have  so  often 
miscalculated,  how  much  oftener  shall  I  miscalculate  in 
political  ones,  where  the  conditions  are  too  numerous,  too 
3 


50  OVEK-LEGISLATION. 

wide-spread,  too  complex,  too  obscure  to  be  understood. 
Here,  doubtless,  is  a  social  evil  and  there  a  desideratum ; 
and  were  I  sure  of  doing  no  mischief  I  would  forthwith 
try  to  cure  the  one  and  achieve  the  other.  But  when  I 
remember  how  many  of  my  private  schemes  have  mis- 
carried— how  speculations  have  failed,  agents  proved  dis- 
honest, marriage  been  a  disaj)pointment — ^how  I  did  but 
puaperize  the  relative  I  sought  to  help — ^how  my  carefully- 
governed  son  has  turned  out  worse  than  most  children — 
how  the  thing  I  desperately  strove  against  as  a  misfortune 
did  me  immense  good — how  while  the  objects  I  ardently 
pursued  brought  me  little  happiness  when  gained,  most  of 
my  pleasures  have  come  from  unexpected  sources ;  when 
I  recall  these  and  hosts  of  like  factsjf  I  am  struck  with  the 
utter  incompetence  of  my  intellect  to  prescribe  for  society. 
rAnd  as  the  evil  is  one  under  which  society  has  not  only 
lived  but  grown,  while  the  desideratum  is  one  it  may 
spontaneously  secure,  as  it  has  most  others,  in  some  unfore- 
seen way,  I  questionjthejga-oj)rietyLQf  meddling." 

There  is  a  great  want  of  this  practical  humility  in  our 
(  political  conduct.  Though  we  have  less  self-confidence 
than  our  ancestors,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  organize  in 
law  their  judgments  on  all  subjects  whatever,  we  have 
yet  far  too  much.  Though  we  have  ceased  to  assume  the 
infallibility  of  our  theological  beliefs,  and  so  ceased  to 
enact  them,  we  have  not  ceased  to  enact  hosts  of  other 
beliefs  of  an  equally  doubtful  kind.  Though  we  no  longer 
presume  to  coerce  men  for  their  spiritual  good,  we  still 
think  ourselves  called  upon  to  coerce  them  for  their 
(material  good—not  seeing  that  the  one  is  as  useless  and 
as  unwarrantable  as  the  other.  Innumerable  failures 
seem,  so  far,  powerless  to  teach  this.  Take  up  a  daily 
paper  and  you  will  probably  find  a  leader  exposing  the 
corruption,  negligence,  or  mismanagement  of  some  State- 


BLIND  FAITH   IN  ENACTMENTS.  61 

department.  Cast  your  eye  down  the  next  column,  and 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  you  will  read  proposals  for  an  ex- 
tension of  State-supervision.  Yesterday  came  a  charge 
gross  carelessness  against  the  Colonial  office:  to-day 
Admiralty  bunglings  are  burlesqued :  to-morrow  brings 
the  question — "Should  there  not  be  more  coal-mine  in- 
spectors?" NoAV  there  is  a  comj)laint  that  the  Board 
of  Health  is  useless ;  and  now  an  outcry  for  more  rail- 
way regulation.  While  your  ears  are  still  ringing 
with  denunciations  of  Chancery  abuses,  or  your  cheeks 
still  glowing  with  indignation  at  some  well-exposed 
iniquity  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  you  suddenly  come 
upon  suggestions  for  organizing  "  a  priesthood  of  science." 
Here  is  a  vehement  condemnation  of  the  police  for  stupidly 
allowing  sight-seers  to  crush  each  other  to  death:  you 
look  for  the  corollary  that  official  regulation  is  not  to  be 
trusted :  when  instead,  apropos  of  a  shipwreck,  you  read 
an  urgent  demand  for  government-inspectors  to  see  that 
ships  always  have  their  boats  ready  for  launching.  Thus, 
whilef  every  day  chronicles  a  failure,  there  every  day 
reappears  the  belief  that  it  needs  but  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment and  a  staff  of  officers,  to  effect  any  end  desired\  No- 
where is  the  perennial  faith  of  mankind  better  seen. 
Ever  since  society  existed  Disappointment  has  been 
preaching — "  Put  not  your  trust  in  legislation ;"  and  yet 
the  trust  in  legislation  seems  scarcely  diminished. 
^  (  Did  the  State  fulfil  efficiently  its  unquestionable 'duties  j 
there  would  be  some  excuse  for  this  eagerness  to  assign  it 
further  ones.  17  "Were  there  no  complaints  of  its  faulty 
administratidn  of  justice ;  of  its  endless  delays  and  untold 
expenses  ;  of  its  bringing  ruin  in  place  of  restitution ;  of 
its  playing  the  tyrant  where  it  should  have  been  the  pro- 
tector— did  we  never  hear  of  its  complicated  stupidities ; 
its  20,000  statutes,  which  it  assumes  all  Englishmen  to 
know,  and  which  not   one  Englishmen   does   know ;  its 


52  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

multiplied  forms,  which,  in  the  effort  to  meet  every  con- 
tingency, open  far  more  loopholes  than  they  provide 
against— had  it  not  shown  its  folly  in  the  system  of  mak- 
ing every  petty  alteration  by  a  new  act,  variously  affect- 
ing innumerable  preceding  acts ;  or  in  its  score  of  succes- 
sive sets  of  Chancery  rules,  which  so  modify,  and  limit, 
and  extend,  and  abolish,  and  alter  each  other,  that  not 
even  Chancery  lawyers  know  what  the  rules  are — were 
we  never  astounded  by  such  a  fact  as  that,  under  the  sys- 
tem of  land  registration  in  Ireland,  6,000^.  have  been  spent 
in  a  "  negative  search  "  to  establish  the  title  of  an  estate 
— did  we  find  in  its  doings  no  such  terrible  incongruity 
as  the  imprisonment  of  a  hungry  vagrant  for  stealing  a 
turnip,  while  for  the  gigantic  embezzlements  of  a  railway 
director  it  inflicts  no  punishment  ;Xh ad  we,  in  short, 
proved  its  efliciency  as  judge  and  defender,  instead  of  hav- 
ing found  it  treacherous,  cruel,  and  anxiously  to  be  shun- 
ned, there  would  be  some  encouragement  to  hope  other 
benefits  at  its  handsj|' 

V(Or  if,  while  failing  in  its  judicial  functions,  the  State 
had  proved  itself  a  capable  agent  in  some  other  depart- 
ment— the  military  for  example — there  would  have  been 
some  show  of  reason  for  extending  its  sphere  of  actiopj 
Suppose  that  it  had  rationally  equipped  its  troops,  instead 
of  giving  them  cumbrous  and  ineffective  muskets,  barbar- 
ous grenadier  caps,  absurdly  heavy  knapsacks  and  car- 
•touche-boxes,  and  clothing  coloured  so  as  admirably  to 
help  the  enemy's  marksmen — suppose  that  it  organized 
well  and  economically,  instead  of  salarying  an  immense 
superfluity  of  officers,  creating  sinecure  colonelcies  of 
4,000^.  a  year,  neglecting  the  meritorious,  and  promoting 
incapables — suppose  that  its  soldiers  were  always  well 
housed  instead  of  being  thrust  into  barracks  that  invalid 
hundreds,  as  at  Aden,  or  that  fall  on  their  occupants,  as 
at  Loodianah,  where  ninety-five  were  thus  killed — suppose 


MILITAET  AND  NAVAL  MISMANAGEMENT,  53 

that,  in  actual  war,  it  had  shown  due  administrative  abili- 
ty, instead  of  occasionally  leaving  its  regiments  to  march 
barefoot,  to  dress  in  patches,  to  capture  their  own  en- 
gineering tools,  and  to  fight  on  empty  stomachs,  as  dur- 
ing the  Peninsular  campaign  ; — suppose  all  this,  and  the 
wish  for  more  State-control  might  still  have  had  some 
warrant. 

Even  though  it  had  bungled  in  every  thing  else/yet 
had  it  in  one  case  done  well — had  its  naval  management 
alone  been  efficient — the  sanguine  would  have  had  a  col- 
ourable excuse  for  expecting  success  in  a  new  field^  Grant 
that  the  reports  about  bad  ships,  ships  that  will  not  sail, 
ships  that  have  to  be  lengthened,  ships  with  unfit  engines, 
ships  that  will  not  carry  their  guns,  ships  without  stow- 
age, and  ships  that  have  to  be  broken  up,  are  all  untrue — 
assume  those  to  be  mere  slanderei-s  who  say  that  the 
Megmra  took  double  the  time  taken  by  a  commercial 
steamer  to  reach  the  Cape ;  that  during  the  same^  voyage 
the  Hydra  was  three  times  on  fire,  and  needed  the  pumps 
kept  going  day  and  night ;  that  the  Charlotte  troop-ship 
set  out  with  75  days'  provisions  on  board,  and  was  three 
months  in  reaching  her  destination;  that  the  Sarpy,  at 
an  imminent  risk  of  life,  got  home  in  110  days  from  Rio — 
disregard  as  calumnies  the  statements  about  septuage- 
narian admirals,  dilettante  ship  building,  and  "  cooked " 
dockyard  accounts — set  down  the  affair  of  the  Goldner 
preserved  meats  as  a  myth,  and  consider  Professor  Barlow 
mistaken  when  he  reported  of  the  Admiralty  compasses 
in  store,  that  "  at  least  one-half  were  mere  lumber ;" — let 
all  these,  we  say,  be  held  groundless  charges,  and  there 
would  remain  for  the  advocates  of  much  government  some 
basis  for  their  political  air-castles,  spite  of  military  and 
judicial  mismanagement. 

As  it  is,  however,  they  seem  to  have  read  backwards 
the  parable  of  the  talents.  xNot  to  the  agent  of  proved 


54:  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

efficiency  do  they  consign  further  duties,  but  to  the  negli- 
gent  and  blundering  agenU  (^Private  enterprise  has  done 
much,  and  done  it  welU  Private  enterprise  has  cleared, 
drained,  and  fertilized  the  country,  and  built  the  towns- 
has  excavated  mines,  laid  out  roads,  dug  canals,  and  em- 
banked railways— has  invented,  and  brought  to  perfec- 
tion, ploughs,  looms,  steam-engines,  printing-presses,  and 
machines  innumerable— has  built  our  ships,  our  vast 
manufactories,  our  docks— has  established  banks,  insur- 
ance societies,  and  the  newspaper  press — ^has  covered  the 
sea  with  lines  of  steam-vessels,  and  the  land  with  electric 
telegraphs.  Private  enterprise  has  brought  agriculture, 
manufactures,  and  commerce  to  their  present  height,  and 
is  now  developing  them  with  increasing  rapidity.  There- 
fore, do  not  trust  private  enterprise.  On  the  other  hand, 
/  the  State  so  fulfils  its  protective  function  as  to  ruin  many, 
^  delude  others,  and  frighten  away  those  who  most  need 
succour ;  its  national  defences  are  so  extravagantly  and 
yet  inefficiently  administered,  as  to  call  forth  almost  daily 
complaint,  expostulation,  or  ridicule ;  and  as  the  nation's 
steward,  it  obtains  from  some  of  our  vast  public  estates  a 
minus  revenue.  Therefore,  trust  the  State.  Slight  the 
good  and  faithful  servant,  and  promote  the  unprofitable 
one  from  one  talent  to  teni' 

Seriously,  the  case,  wnile  it  may  not,  in  some  respects, 
warrant  this  parallel,  is,  in  one  respect,  even  stronger. 
TFor  the  new  work  is  not  of  the  same  order  as  the  old,  but 
of  a  more  difficult  order. )  Badly  as  government  discharges 
its  true  duties,  any  other  duties  committed  to  it  are  likely  to 
be  still  worse  discharged.  To  guard  its  subjects  against 
aggression,  either  individual  or  national,  is  a  straightfor- 
ward and  tolerably  simple  matter;  to  regulate,  directly  or 
indirectly,  the  personal  actions  of  those  subjects  is  an  infi- 
nitely complicated  matter.  It  is  one  thing  to  secure  to  each 
man  the  unhindered  power  to  pursue  his  own  good ;  it  is  a 


CLASSIFICATION   OF   STATE  FUNCTIONS.  65 

widely  different  thing  to  pursue  the  good  for  him.  To  do 
the  first  efficiently,  the  State  has  merely  to  look  on  while 
its  citizens  act ;  to  forbid  unfairness  ;  to  adjudicate  when 
called  on ;  and  to  enforce  restitution  for  injuries.  To  do 
the  last  efficiently,  it  must  become  an  ubiquitous  worker 
— ^must  know  each  man's  needs  better  than  he  knows  them 
himself — must,  in  short,  possess  superhuman  power  and 
intelligence.  ( Even,  therefore,  had  the  State  done  well  in 
its  proper  sphere,  no  sufficient  warrant  would  have  ex- 
isted for  extending  that  sphere ;  but  seeing  how  ill  it  has 
discharged  those  simple  offices  which  we  cannot  help 
consigning  to  it,  small  indeed  is  the  probability  of  its  \ 
discharging  well  offices  of  a  more  complicated  naturey  "7  ' 

Change  the  point  of  view  however  we  may,  and  this 
conclusion  still  presents  itself.  £[f  we  define  the  primary 
State-duty  to  be,  protecting  each  individual  against 
others;  then,  all  other  State  action  comes  under  the 
definition  of  protecting  each  individual  against  himself — 
against  his  own  stupidity,  his  own  idleness,  his  own  im- 
providence, rashness,  or  other  defect — his  own  incapacity 
for  doing  something  or  other  which  should  be  doneJ/ 
There  is  no  questioning  this  classification.  For  manifestly 
all  the  obstacles  that  lie  between  a  man's  desires  and  the 
satisfaction  of  them,  are  either  obstacles  arising  from 
other  men's  counter  desires,  or  obstacles  arising  from 
inability  in  himself.  Such  of  these  counter  desires  as  are 
just,  have  as  much  claim  to  satisfaction  as  his ;  and  may 
not,  therefore,  be  thwarted.  ^Such  of  them  as  are  unjust, 
it  is  the  State's  duty  to  hold  in  check.  The  only  other 
possible  sphere  for  it,  therefore,  is  saving  the  individual 
from  the  results  of  his  own  weakness,  apathy,  or  foolish- 
ness— warding  off  the  consequences  of  his  nature ;  or,  as 
we  say — protecting  him  against  himself.  Making  no  com- 
ment, at  present,  on  the  policy  of  this,  and  confining  our- 
selves solely  to  the  practicability  of  it,  let  us  inquire  how 


56  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

the  proposal  looks  when  reduced  to  its  simplest  form. 
Here  are  men  endowed  with  instincts,  and  sentiments, 
and  perceptions,  all  conspiring  to  self-preservation.  Each 
of  these  faculties  has  some  relationship,  direct  or  indirect, 
to  personal  well-being.  The  due  action  of  each  brings  its  " 
quantum  of  pleasure ;  the  inaction,  its  more  or  less  of  pain. 
Those  provided  with  these  faculties  in  due  proportions, 
prosper  and  multiply ;  those  ill-provided,  unceasingly  tend 
to  die  out.  p^d  the  general  success  of  this  scheme  of 
human  organization  is  seen  in  the  fact,  that  under  it  the 
world  has  been  peopled,  and  by  it  the  complicated 
appliances  and  arrangements  of  civilized  life  have  been 
developed.^ 

It  is  cdmplained,  however,  that  there  are  certain  direc- 
tions in  which  this  apparatus  of  motive  works  but  imper- 
fectly. While  it  is  admitted  that  men  are  duly  prompted 
by  it  to  bodily  sustenance,  to  the  obtainment  of  clothing 
and  shelter,  to  marriage  and  the  care  of  offspring,  and  to 
the  establishment  of  the  more  important  industrial  and 
commercial  agencies  ;'(it  is  yet  argued  that  there  are  many 
desiderata,  as  pure  air,  more  knowledge,  good  water,  safe 
ti-avelling,  and  so  forth,  which  it  does  not  duly  achieve^; 
(And  these  short-comings  being  assumed  permanent,  and  not 
temporary,  it  is  urged  that  some  supplementary  means  must 
be  employed.  //It  is  therefore  proposed  that  out  of  the  mass 
of  men  thus  imperfectly  endowed,  a  certain  number,  con- 
stituting the  legislature,  shall  be  instructed  to  secure  these 
various  objects.  The  legislators  thus  instructed  (all  char- 
acterized, on  the  average,  by  the  same  defects  in  this 
apparatus  of  motives  as  men  in  general),  being  unable 
personally  to  fulfil  their  tasks,  must  fulfil  them  by  deputy 
— must  appoint  commissions,  boards,  councils,  and  staffs 
of  ofiicers ;  and  must  construct  their  agencies  of  this  same 
defective  humanity  that  acts  so  ill.  Why  now  should  this 
system  of  complex  deputation  succeed  where  the  system 


GOVERNMENTS   WOEKING  BY  DEPUTY.  67 

of  simple  deputation  does  not  y  The  industrial,  commer- 
cial, and  philanthropic  agencies,  which  citizens  form  spon- 
taneously, are  directly  deputed  agencies ;  these  govern- 
mental agencies  made  by  electing  legislators  who  appoint 
officers,  are  indirectly  deputed  ones.  And  it  is  hoped 
that,  by  this  process  of  double  deputation,  things  may  be 
achieved  which  the  process  of  single  deputation  will  not 
achieve.  What,  now,  is  the  rationale  of  this  hope  ?  Is  it 
that  legislators,  and  their  employes,  are  made  to  feel  more 
intensely  than  the  rest  these  evils  they  are  to  remedy, 
these  wants  they  are  to  satisfy  ?  Hardly ;  for  by  position 
they  are  mostly  relieved  from  such  evils  and  wants.  Is 
it,  then,  that  they  are  to  have  the  primary  motive  replaced 
by  a  secondary  motive — the  fear  of  public  displeasure,  and 
ultimate  removal  from  office?  Why,  scarcely;  for  the 
minor  benefits  which  citizens  will  not  organize  to  secure 
directly^  they  will  not  organize  to  secure  indirectly^  by 
turning  out  inefficient  servants :  especially  if  they  cannot 
readily  get  efficient  ones.  /  Is  it,  then,  that  these  State- 
agents  are  to  do,  from  a  sense  of  duty,  what  they  would 
not  do  from  any  other  motive  ?^  Evidently  this  is  the 
only  possibility  remaining.^  The  proposition  on  which  the 
advocates  of  much  government  have  to  fall  back,  is,  that 
( things  which  the  people  will  not  unite  to  effect  for  person- 
al benefit,  a  law-appointed  portion  of  them  will  unite  to 
effect  for  the  benefit  of  the  restT  Public  men  and  func- 
tionaries love  their  neighbours  better  than  themselves! 
The  philanthropy  of  statesmen  is  stronger  than  the  selfish- 
ness of  citizens ! 

LXo  wonder,  then,  that  every  day  adds  to  the  list  of 
-^^islative  miscarriages. )  If  colliery  explosions  increase, 
notwithstanding  the  appointment  of  coal-mine  inspectors, 
why  it  is  but  a  natural  moral  to  these  false  hypotheses. 
If  Sunderland  shipowners  complain  that,  as  far  as  tried, 
"  the  Mercantile  Marine  Act  has  proved  a  total  failure ; " 
3* 


58^  OVEK-LEGISLATION. 

and  if,  meanwhile,  the  other  class  affected  by  it— the  sail- 
ors—show their  disapprobation  by  extensive  strikes ;  why 
it  does  but  exemplify  the  folly  of  trusting  a  theorizing 
benevolence  rather  than  an  experienced  self-interest.  On 
all  sides  we  may  expect  such  facts ;  and  on  all  sides  we 
find  them.  Government,  turning  engineer,  appoints  its 
lieutenant,  the  Sewers'  Commission,  to  drain  London. 
Presently  Lambeth  sends  deputations  to  say  that  it  pays 
heavy  rates,  and  gets  no  benefit.  Tired  of  waiting,  Beth- 
nal-green  calls  meetings  to  consider  "the  most  effectual 
means  of  extending  the  drainage  of  the  district."  From 
Wandsworth  come  complainants,  who  threaten  to  pay  no 
more  until  something  is  done.  Camberwell  proposes  to 
raise  a  subscription  and  do  the  work  itself.  Meanwhile, 
no  progress  is  made  towards  the  purification  of  the 
Thames ;  the  weekly  returns  show  an  increasing  rate  of 
mortality ;  in  Parliament,  the  friends  of  the  Commission 
have  nothing  save  good  intentions  to  urge  in  mitigation 
of  censure ;  and,  at  length,  despairing  ministers  gladly 
seize  an  excuse  for  quietly  shelving  the  Commission  and 
its  plans  altogether.*  As  architectural  surveyor,  the  State 
has  scarcely  succeeded  better  than  as  engineer ;  witness 
the  Metropolitan  Buildings'  Act.  New  houses  still  tumble 
down  from  time  to  time.  A  few  months  since  two  fell  at 
Bays  water,  and  one  more  recently  near  the  Pentonville 
Prison:  all  notwithstanding  prescribed  thicknesses,  and 
hoop-iron  band,  and  inspectors.      It  never  struck  those 

*  So  complete  is  the  failure  of  this  and  other  sanitary  bodies,  that,  at 
the  present  moment  (March,  1854),  a  number  of  philanthropic  gentlemen 
are  voluntarily  organizing  a  "  Health  Fund  for  London,"  with  the  view  of 
meeting  the  threatened  invasion  of  the  Cholera;  and  the  plea  for  this 
•purely  "private  erderprise,  is,  that  the  Local  Boards  of  Health  and  Boards 
of  Guardians  are  inoperative,  from  '■'■ignorance,  1st,  of  die  extent  of  the 
danger ;  2d,  of  the  means  which  experience  has  discovered  for  meeting  it ; 
and  3d,  of  the  comparative  security  which  those  means  may  produce.^'' 


FAILURE   OF   GOVEENiyiENTAL   PROJECTS.  59 

who  provided  these  delusive  sureties,  that  it  was  possible 
to  build  walls  without  bonding  the  two  surfaces  together, 
80  that  the  inner  layer  might  be  removed  after  the  survey- 
or's approval.  Nor  did  they  foresee,  that,  in  dictating  a 
larger  quantity  of  bricks  than  experience  proved  abso- 
lutely needftil,  they  were  simply  insuring  a  slow  deteriora- 
tion of  quality  to  an  equivalent  extent.*  The  government 
guarantee  for  safe  passenger  ships  answers  no  better  than 
its  guarantee  for  safe  houses.  Though  the  burning  of 
the  Amazon  arose  either  from  bad  construction  or  bad 
stowage,  she  had  received  the  Admiralty  certificate  before 
sailing.  ^NTotwithstanding  official  approval,  the  Adelaide 
was  found,  on  her  first  voyage,  to  steer  ill,  to  have  useless 
pumps,  ports  that  let  floods  of  water  into  the  cabins,  and 
coals  so  near  the  furnaces  that  they  twice  caught  fire. 
The  W.  8.  Lindsay,  which  turned  out  unfit  for  sailing, 
had  yet  been  passed  by  the  government  agent ;  and,  but 
for  the  owner,  might  have  gone  to  sea  at  a  great  risk  of 
life.  The  Melbourne — originally  a  State-built  ship — which 
took  tAventy-four  days  to  reach  Lisbon,  and  then  needed 
to  be  docked  to  undergo  a  thorough  repair,  had  been  duly 
inspected.  And  lastly,  the  notorious  Australian^  before 
her  third  futile  attempt  to  proceed  on  her  voyage,  had, 
her  owners  tell  us,  received  "  the  full  approbation  of  the 
government  inspector."  Neither  does  the  like  supervision 
give  security  to  land-travelling.  The  iron  bridge  at  Ches- 
ter, which,  breaking,  precipitated  a  train  into  the  Dee, 
had  passed  under  the  official  eye.  Inspection  did  not  pre- 
vent a  column  on  the  South-eastern  from  being  so  placed 
as  to  kill  a  man  who  put  his  head  out  of  the  carriage  win- 

*  The  Builder  remarks,  that  "  the  removal  of  the  brick-duties  has  not 
yet  produced  that  improvement  in  the  make  of  bricks  which  we  ought  to 

find, but  as  bad  bricks  can  be  obtained  for  less  than  good  bricks, 

80  long  as  houses  built  of  the  former  will  sell  aff  readily  as  if  the  better  had 
been  used,  no  improvement  is  to  be  expected." 


60  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

dow.  The  locomotive  that  burst  at  Brighton  lately,  did 
so  notwithstanding  a  State  approval  given  but  ten  days 
previously.  And — to  look  at  the  facts  in  the  gross — this 
system  of  supervision  has  not  prevented  the  gradual  in- 
crease of  railway  accidents ;  which,  be  it  remembered,  has 
arisen  since  the  system  was  commenced. 

"  Well,  let  the  State  fail.  It  can  but  do  its  best.  If  it 
succeed,  so  much  the  better :  if  it  do  not,  where  is  the 
harm  ?  Surely  it  is  wiser  to  act,  and  take  the  chance  of 
success,  than  to  do  nothing."  To  this  plea  the  rejoinder 
is,  that /unfortunately  the  results  of  legislative  interven- 
tion are  not  only  negatively  bad,  but  often  positively  soj) 
Acts  of  Parliament  do  not  simply  fail ;  they  frequently 
make  worse.  /The  familiar  truth  that  persecution  aids 
rather  than  hinders  proscribed  doctrines — a  truth  lately 
afresh  illustrated  by  the  forbidden  work  of  Gervinus — is  a 
part  of  the  general  truth  that  legislation  often  does  indi- 
rectly, the  reverse  of  that  which  it  directly  aims  to  do. 
Thus  has  it  been  with  the  Metropolitan  Buildings'  Act. 
As  was  lately  agreed  unanimously  by  the  delegates  from 
all  the  parishes  in  London,  and  as  was  stated  by  them  to 
Sir  William  Molesworth,  this  act  "  has  encouraged  bad 
building,  and  has  been  the  means  of  covering  the  suburbs 
of  the  metropolis  with  thousands  of  wretched  hovels, 
which  are  a  disgrace  to  a  civilized  country." 

Thus  also  has  it  been  in  provincial  towns.  The  Not- 
tingham Inclosure  Act  of  1845,  by  prescribing  the  struc- 
ture of  the  houses  to  be  built,  and  the  extent  of  yard  or 
garden  to  be  allotted  to  each,  has  rendered  it  inipossible 
to  build  working-class  dwellings  at  such  moderate  rents 
as  to  compete  with  existing  ones  ;  it  is  estimated  that,  as 
a  consequence  of  this,  10,000  of  the  population  are  debarred 
from  the  new  homes  they  would  otherwise  have,  and  are 
forced  to  live  crowded  together  in  miserable  places,  unfit 
for  human  habitation ;    and  so,  in  its  anxiety  to  insure 


STATE  ACTION   WORSE  THAN  NO  ACTION.  61 

healthy  accommodation  for  artisans,  the  law  has  entailed 
on  them  still  worse  accommodation  than  before.  Thus, 
too,  has  it  been  with  the  Passengers'  Act.  The  terrible 
fevers  which  arose  in  the  Australian  emigrant  ships  a  few 
months  since,  causing  in  the  Bourneuf  83  deaths,  in  the 
Wanota  39  deaths,  in  the  Marco  Polo  53  deaths,  and  in 
the  Ticonderoga  104  deaths,  arose  in  vessels  sent  out  by 
the  government;  and  arose  in  consequence  of  the  close 
packing  which  the  Passengers'  Act  authorizes.* 

Thus  moreover  has  it  been  with  the  safeguards  pro- 
vided by  the  Mercantile  Marine  Act.  The  examinations 
devised  for  insuring  the  efficiency  of  captains,  have  had 
the  effect  of  certifying  the  superficially-clever  and  unprac- 
tised men,  and,  as  we  are  told  by  a  shipowner,  rejecting 
many  of  the  long-tried  and  most  trustworthy :  the  general 
result  being  that  the  ratio  of  shipwrecks  has  increased. 
Thus  also  has  it  happened  with  Boards  of  Health,  w^hich 
have,  in  sundry  cases,  exacerbated  the  evils  to  be  removed; 
as,  for  instance,  at  Croydon,  where,  according  to  the 
official  report,  the  measures  of  the  sanitary  authorities  pro- 
duced an  epidemic,  which  attacked  1,600  people,  and  killed 
70.  Thus  again  has  it  been  with  the  Joint  Stock  Com- 
panies Registration  Act.  As  was  shown  by  Mr.  James 
Wilson,  in  his  late  motion  for  a  select  committee  on  life- 
assurance  associations,  this  measure,  passed  in  1844  to 
guard  the  public  against  bubble  schemes,  actually  facili- 
tated the  rascalities  of  1845  and  subsequent  years.  The 
legislative  sanction,  devised  as  a  guarantee  of  genuineness, 
and  supposed  by  the  people  to  be  such,  clever  adventurers 
have  without  difficulty  obtained  for  the  most  worthless 
projects ;  having  obtained  it,  an  amount  of  public  confi- 
dence has   followed  which  they  could  never   otherwise 

*  Against  which  close  packing,  by  the  way,  a  private  mercantile  body — 
the  Liverpool  Shipowners'  Association — ^unavailingly  protested  when  the 
Act  was  before  Parliament. 


62  OVER-LEGISLATION . 

have  gained ;  and  in  this  way  literally  hundreds  of  sham 
enterprises,  that  would  not  else  have  seen  the  light,  have 
been  fostered  into  being ;  and  thousands  of  families  have 
been  ruined  who  would  never  have  been  so  but  for  legis- 
lative efforts  to  make  them  more  secure. 

f  Moreover,  when  these  topical  remedies  applied  by 
statesmen  do  not  exacerbaie  the  evils  they  were  meant 
to  cure,  they  constantly — we  believe  invariably — induce 
collateral  evils ;  and  these  often  graver  than  the  original 
ones. )  It  is  the  vice  of  this  empirical  school  of  politicians 
that  ^hey  never  look  beyond  proximate  causes  and  imme- 
diate effects.)  In  common  with  the  uneducated  masses 
they  habitually  regard  each  phenomenon  as  involving  but 
one  antecedent  and  one  consequent.  They  do  not  bear  in 
mind  that  each  phenomenon  is  a  link  in  an  infinite  series — 
is  the  result  of  myriads  of  preceding  phenomena,  and  will 
have  a  share  in  producing  myriads  of  succeeding  ones. 
Hence  they  overlook  the  fact,  that,  in  disturbing  any 
natural  chain  of  sequences, (they  are  not  only  modifying 
the  result  next  in  succession,  but  all  the  future  results)^ 
into  which  this  will  enter  as  a  part  cause.  The  serial 
genesis  of  phenomena,  and  the  interaction  of  each  series 
upon  every  other  series,  produces  a  complexity  utterly  be- 
yond human  grasp.  Even  in  the  simplest  cases  this  is  so. 
A  servant  who  mends  the  fire  sees  but  few  effects  from 
the  burning  of  a  lump  of  coal.  The  man  of  science,  how- 
ever, knows  that  there  are  very  many  effects.  He  knows 
that  the  combustion  establishes  numerous  atmospheric 
currents,  and  through  them  moves  thousands  of  cubic  feet 
of  air  inside  the  house  and  out.  He  knows  that  the  heat 
diffused  causes  expansions  and  subsequent  contractions  of 
all  bodies  within  its  range.  He  knows  that  the  persons  . 
warmed  are  affected  in  their  rate  of  respiration  and  their 
waste  of  tissue;  and  that  these  physiological  changes 
must  have  various  secondary  results.      He  knows  that, 


COMPLEX  AND  INCALCULABLE  EFFECTS.       63 

could  he  trace  to  their  ramified  consequences  all  the  forces 
disengaged,  mechanical,  chemical,  thermal,  electric — could 
he  enumerate  all  the  subsequent  efiects  of  the  evaporation 
caused,  the  gases  generated,  the  light  evolved,  the  heat 
radiated ;  a  volume  would  scarcely  suffice  to  enter  them. 

If  now  from  a  simple  inorganic  change  such  complex 
results  arise,  how  infinitely  multiplied,  how  utterly  incal- 
culable must  be  the  ultimate  consequences  of  any  force 
brought  to  bear  upon  society.  Wonderfully  constructed 
as  it  is — mutually  dependent  as  are  its  members  for  the 
satisfaction  of  their  wants — affected  as  each  unit  of  it  is 
by  his  fellows,  not  only  as  to  his  safety  and  prosperity, 
but  in  his  health,  his  temper,  his  culture ;  the  social  or- 
ganism cannot  be  dealt  with  in  any  one  part,  without  all 
other  parts  being  influenced  in  ways  that  cannot  be  fore- 
seen. You  put  a  duty  on  paper,  and  by-and-by  find  that, 
through  the  medium  of  the  jacquard-cards  employed,  you 
have  inadvertently  taxed  figured  silk,  sometimes  to  the 
extent  of  several  shillings  per  piece.  On  removing  the 
impost  from  bricks,  you  discover  that  its  existence  had 
increased  the  dangers  of  mining,  by  preventing  shafts 
from  being  lined  and  workings  from  being  tunnelled.  By 
the  excise  on  soap,  you  have,  it  turns  out,  greatly  encour- 
aged the  use  of  caustic  washing-powders;  and  so  have 
unintentionally  entailed  an  immense  destruction  of  clothes. 
In  every  case  you  perceive,  on  careful  inquiry,  that  besides 
acting  upon  that  which  you  sought  to  act  upon,  you  have 
acted  upon  many  other  things,  and  each  of  these  again  on 
many  others ;  and  so  have  propagated  a  multitude  of 
changes  more  or  less  appreciable  in  all  directions. 

(  We  need  feel  no  surprise,  then,  that  in  their  efforts 
tocure  specific  evils!  legislators  have  continually  caused 
collateral  evils  they  never  looked  forJ  -  No  Carlyle's 
wisest  man,  nor  any  body  of  such,  could  avoid  causing 
them.     Though  their  production  is  explicable  enough  after 


64  OVEE-LEQISLATION. 

it  has  occurred,  it  is  never  anticipated.  When,  under  the 
"New  Poor-law,  provision  was  made  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  vagrants  in  the  Union-houses,  it  was  hardly  ex- 
pected that  a  body  of  tramps  would  be  thereby  called  into 
existence,  who  would  spend  their  time  in  walking  fi-om 
Union  to  Union  throughout  the  kingdom.  It  was  little 
thought  by  those  who  in  past  generations  assigned  parish- 
pay  for  the  maintenance  of  illegitimate  children,  that,  as  a 
result,  a  family  of  such  would  by-and-by  be  considered  a 
small  fortune,  and  the  mother  of  them  a  desirable  wife ; 
nor  did  the  same  statesmen  see,  that,  by  the  law  of  settle- 
ment, they  were  organizing  a  disastrous  inequality  of 
wages  in  different  districts,  and  entailing  a  system  of 
clearing  away  cottages,  which  would  result  in  the  crowd- 
ing of  bedrooms,  and  in  a  consequent  moral  and  physical 
deterioration.  The  English  tonnage  law  was  enacted 
simply  with  a  view  to  regulate  the  mode  of  measurement : 
its  framers  overlooked  the  fact  that  they  were  practically 
providing  "  for  the  effectual  and  compulsory  construction 
of  bad  ships ;"  and  that  "  to  cheat  the  law,  that  is,  to 
build  a  tolerable  ship  in  spite  of  it,  was  the  highest  achieve- 
ment left  to  an  English  builder."*  Greater  commercial 
security  was  alone  aimed  at  by  the  partnership  law.  We 
now  find,  however,  that  the  unlimited  liability  it  insists 
upon  is  a  serious  hindrance  to  progress ;  it  practically  for- 
bids the  association  of  small  capitalists ;  it  is  found  a  great 
obstacle  to  the  building  of  improved  dwellings  for  the  peo- 
ple ;  it  prevents  a  better  relationship  between  artisans  and 
employers ;  and  by  withholding  from  the  workmg-classes 
good  investments  for  their  savings,  it  checks  the  growth 
of  provident  habits  and  encourages  drunkenness.  Thus 
on  all  sides  are  well-meant  meausures  producing  unforeseen 

*  Lecture  before  the  Royal  Institution,  by  J.  Scott  Russell,  Esq.,  "On 
Wave-line  Ships  and  Yachts,"  Feb.  6,  1852. 


ORIGIN   OF   SOCIAL   AGENCIES.  65 

mischiefs — a  licensing  law  that  promotes  the  adulteration 
of  beer ;  a  ticket-of-leave  system  that  encourages  men  to 
commit  crime ;  a  police  regulation  that  forces  street-huck- 
sters into  the  workhouse.  And  then,  in  addition  to  the 
obvious  and  proximate  evils,  come  the  remote  and  less 
distinguishable  ones,  which,  could  we  estimate,  their 
accumulated  result,  we  should  probably  find  even  more 
serious. 

^  But  the  thing  to  be  discussed  is,(not  so  much  whether, 
by  any  amount  of  intelligence,  it  is  possible  for  a  govern- 
ment to  work  out  the  various  ends  consigned  to  it,  as 
whether  its  fulfilment  of  them  is  probahleS  (It  is  less  a  ques- 
tion of  can  than  a  question  of  tceVD/ Granting  the  abso- 
lute competence  of  the  State,  let  us  consider  what  hope 
there  is  of  getting  from  it  satisfactory  performance  Let 
us  look  at  the  moving  force  by  which  the  legislative 
machine  is  worked,  and  thenn^inquire  whether  this  force 
is  thus  employed  as  economically  as  it  would  other- 
wise be3 

Manifestly,  asf  desire  of  some  kind  is  the  invariable 
stimulus  to  action  in  the  individual,  every  social  agency, 
of  what  nature  soever,  must  have  some  aggregate  of  de- 
sires for  its  motive  power.  )  Men  in  their  collective  capaci- 
ty can  exhibit  no  result  but  what  has  its  origin  in  some 
appetite,  feeling,  or  taste  common  among  them.  Did  not 
they  like  meat,  there  could  be  no  cattle-graziers,  no  Smith- 
field,  no  distributing  organization  of  butchers.  Operas, 
Philharmonic  Societies,  music-publishers,  and  street  organ- 
boys,  have  all  been  called  into  being  by  our  love  of  melodi- 
ous sounds.  Look  through  the  trades'  directory ;  take  up 
a  guide  to  the  London  sights ;  read  the  index  of  Brad- 
shaw's  time-tables,  the  reports  of  the  learned  societies,  or 
the  advertisement  of  new  books ;  and  you  see  in  the  publi- 
cation itself,  and  in  the  things  it  describes,  so  many  pro- 


66  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

jects  of  human  activity,  stimulated  by  human  desire.  Un- 
der this  stimulus  grow  up  agencies  alike  the  most  gigantic 
and  the  mpst  insignificant,  the  most  complicated  and  the 
most  simple — agencies  for  national  defence  and  for  the 
sweeping  of  crossings ;  for  the  daily  distribution  of  letters, 
and  for  the  collection  of  bits  of  coal  out  of  the  Thames 
mud — agencies  that  subserve  all  ends,  from  the  preaching 
of  Christianity  to  the  protection  of  ill-treated  animals ; 
from  the  production  of  bread  for  a  natipn  to  the  supply  of 
groundsel  for  caged  singing-birds.  -/The  accumulated 
desires  of  individuals  being,  then,  the  moving  power  by 
which  every  social  agency  is  worked,  the  question  to  be 
considered  is — Which  is  the  most  economical  kind  of 
agency?)'  The  agency  having  no  power  in  itself,  but  being 
merely  an  instrument,  our  inquiry  must  be  for  the/fnost 
efficient  instrument — the  instrument  that  costs  least,  and 
wastes  the  smallest  amount  of  the  moving  power — the 
instrument  least  liable  to  get  out  of  order,  and  most  readily 
put  right  again  when  it  goes  wrong.)  Of  the  two  kinds 
of  social  mechanism  exemplified  above,  the  spontaneous 
and  the  ^ovfirnmental,  which  is  the  best  ?   ^ 

From  the  form  of  this  question  will  be  readily  foreseen 
the  intended  answer-^that  is  the  best  mechanism  which 
contains  the  fewest  parts'^  The  common  saying,  /what 
you  wish  well  done  you  must  do  yourself,"  emWxlies  a 
truth  equally  applicable  to  political  as  to  private  life^ 
The  experience  of  the  agriculturist  who  finds  that  farming 
by  bailiff  entails  loss,  while  tenant-farming  pays,  is  an  ex- 
perience still  better  illustrated  in  national  history  than  in 
a  landlord's  account  books.  The  admitted  fact,  that  joint- 
stock  companies  are  beaten  wherever  individuals  compete 
with  them,  is  a  still  more  certain  fact  when  the  joint-stock 
company  comprehends  the  whole  nation.  This  transfer- 
ence of  power  from  constituencies  to  members  of  parlia- 
ment, from  these  to  the  executive,  from  the  executive  to  a 


SLUGGISHNESS   OF   OFFICIALISM.  67 

board,  fi'om  the  board  to  its  inspectors,  and  from  inspec- 
tors through  their  subs  down  to  the  actual  workers — ^this 
operating  through  a  series  a  levers,  each  of  which  absorbs 
in  friction  and  inertia  part  of  the  moving  force ;  is  as  bad, 
in  virtue  of  its  complexity,  as  the  direct  employment  by 
society  of  individuals,  private  companies,  and  spontane- 
ously-formed institutions,  is  good,  in  virtue  of  its  simplicity. 
Fully  to  realize  the  contrast,  we  must  compare  in  detail 
the  working  of  the  two  systems. 

^Officialism  is  habitually  slow.  When  non-govem--^ 
mental  agencies  are  dilatory,  the  public  has  its  remedy:  it  ' 
ceases  to  employ  them,  and  soon  finds  quicker  ones.  Un- 
der this  discipline  all  private  bodies  are  taught  prompt- 
ness. But  for  delays  in  State-departments  there  is  no  such 
easy  cure.  Life-long  Chancery  suits  must  be  patiently 
borne ;  Museum-catalogues  must  be  hopelessly  waited  for. 
While,  by  the  people  themselves,  a  Crystal  Palace  is  de- 
signed, erected,  and  filled,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months, 
the  legislature  takes  twenty  years  to  build  itself  a  new 
house.  -While  by  private  persons,  the  debates  are  daily 
printed  and  dispersed  over  the  kingdom  within  a  few 
hours  of  their  utterance,  the  Board  of  Trade  tables  are 
regularly  published  a  month,  and  sometimes  more,  after 
date.  And  so  throughout.  Here  is  a  Board  of  Health 
which,  since  1849,  has  been  about  to  close  the  metropoli- 
tan graveyards,  but  has  not  done  it  yet ;  and  which  has 
so  long  dawdled  over  projects  for  cemeteries,  that  the 
London  Necropolis  Company  has  taken  the  matter  out  of 
its  hands.  Here  is  a  patentee  who  has  had  fourteen  years' 
correspondence  with  the  Horse  Guards,  before  getting  a 
definite  answer  respecting  the  use  of  his  improved  boot  for 
the  Army.  Here  is  a  Plymouth  port-admiral  who  delays 
sending  out  to  look  for  the  missing  boats  of  the  Amazon 
until  ten  days  after  the  wreck. 
C   Again,  officialism  is  stupid.     Under  the  natural  course  jl 


68  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

of  things  each  citizen  tends  towards  his  fittest  function. 
Those  who  are  competent  to  the  kind  of  work  they  under- 
take, succeed,  and,  in  the  average  of  cases,  are  advanced 
in  proportion  to  their  efficiency ;  while  the  incompetent, 
society  soon  finds  out,  ceases  to  employ,  forces  to  try  some- 
thing easier,  and  eventually  turns  to  use.  But  it  is  quite 
otherwise  in  State-organizations.  Here,  as  every  one 
knows,  birth,  age,  back-stairs  intrigue,  and  sycophancy, 
determine  the  selections,  rather  than  merit.  The  "  fool  of 
the  family "  readily  finds  a  place  in  the  Church,  if  "  the 
family"  have  good  connections.  A  youth,  too  ill-educated 
for  any  active  profession,  does  very  well  for  an  officer  in 
the  Army,/  Gray  hair,  or  a  title,  is  a  far  better  guarantee 
of  naval  promotion  than  genius  is.  Nay,  indeed,  the  man 
of  capacity  often  finds  that,  in  government  offices,  superi- 
ority is  a  hindrance — that  his  chiefs  hate  to  be  pestered 
with  his  proposed  improvements,  and  are  offended  by  his 
implied  criticism.  Not  only,  therefore,  is  legislative  ma- 
chinery complex,  but  it  is  made  of  inferior  materials. 
Hence  the  blunders  we  daily  read  of — ^the  supplying  to 
the  dockyards  from  the  royal  forests  of  timber  unfit  for 
use ;  the  administration  of  relief  during  the  Irish  famine 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  draw  labourei*s  from  the  field,  and 
diminish  the  subsequent  harvest  by  one-fourth  ;*  the  filing 
of  patents  at  three  different  offices  and  keeping  an  in- 
dex at  none ;  the  building  of  iron,  war-vessels  that  should 
be  of  wood,  and  the  insisting  on  wood,  for  mail-steamers 
that  should  be  of  iron.  Everywhere  does  this  bungling 
show  itself,  from  the  elaborate  failure  of  House  of  Com- 
mons ventilation  down  to  the  publication  of  the  London 
Gazette,  which  invaribly  comes  out  wrongly  folded. 
(A  further  characteristic  of  officialism  is  its  ex^trav^- 
5    gance.    In  its  chief  departments,  Ai*my,  Navy,  and  Church, 

*  See  Evidence  of  Major  Larcom. 


EXTRAVAGANCE   OF  OFFICIALISM.  69 

it  employs  far  more  officers  than  are  needful,  and  pays 
some  of  the  useless  ones  exorbitantly/  The  work  done  by 
the  Sewers  Commission  has  cost,  as  Sir  B.  Hall  tells  us, 
from  300  to  400  per  cent,  over  the  contemplated  outlay ; 
while  the  management  charges  have  reached  35,  40,  and 
45  per  cent,  on  the  expenditure.  The  trustees  of  Rams- 
gate  Harbour — a  harbour,  by  the  way,  that  has  taken  a 
century  to  complete — are  spending  18,000/.  a  year  in  doing 
what  5,000/.  has  been  proved  sufficient  for.  The  Board  of 
Health  is  causing  new  surveys  to  be  made  of  all  the  towns 
under  its  control — a  proceeding  which,  as  Mr.  Stephenson 
states,  and  as  every  tyro  in  engineering  knows,  is,  for 
drainage  purposes,  a  wholly  needless  expense.  These 
public  agencies  are  subject  to  no  such  influence  as  that 
which  obliges  private  enterprise  to  be  economical.  <Trad- 
ers  and  mercantile  bodies  succeed  by  serving  society 
cheaply.  Such  of  them  as  cannot  do  this  are  continually 
supplanted  by  those  who  can.  They  cannot  saddle  the 
nation  with  the  results  of  their  extravagance,  and  so  are 
prevented  from  being  extravagant.  "On  works  that  are  to 
return  a  profit  it  does  not  answer  to  spend  48  per  cent,  of 
the  capital  in  superintendence,  as  in  the  engineering 
department  of  the  Indian  Government ;  and  Indian  rail- 
way companies,  knowing  this,  manage  to  keep  their  su- 
perintendence charges  within  8  per  cent.  A  shopkeeper 
leaves  out  of  his  accounts  no  item  analagous  to  that 
6,000,000/.  of  its  revenues,  which  Parliament  allows  to  be 
deducted  on  the  way  to  the  Exchequer.>  Walk  through  a 
manufactoiy,  and  you  see  that  the  stem  alternatives,  care- 
fulness or  ruin,  dictate  the  saving  of  every  penny ;  visit  one 
of  the  national  dockyards,  and  the  comments  you  make  on 
any  glaring  wastefulness  are  carelessly  met  by  the  slang 
phrase — "  Nunky  pays." 

^  The  unadaptiveness  of  officialism  is  another  of  its  vices. 
Unlike  private  enterprise  which  quickly  modifies  its  action 


70  0VEE-LEGI8LATI0N. 

to  meet  emergencies — unlike  the  shopkeeper  who  promptly 
finds  the  wherewith  to  satisfy  a  sudden  demand — unlike 
the  railway  company  which  doubles  its  trains  to  carry  a 
special  influx  of  passengers ;  the  law-made  instnimentality 
lumbers  on  under  all  varieties  of  circumstances  through 
its  ordained  routine  at  its  habitual  rate.  By  its  very 
nature  it  is  fitted  only  for  the  average  requirements,  and 
inevitably  fails  under  unusual  requirements/  You  cannot 
step  into  the  street  without  having  the  contrast  thrust 
upon  you.  Is  it  summer  ?  You  see  the  water-carts  going 
their  prescribed  rounds  with  scarcely  any  regard  to  the 
needs  of  the  weather — to-day  sprinkling  afresh  the  already 
moist  roads ;  to-morrow  bestowing  their  showers  with  no 
greater  liberality  upon  roads  cloudy  with  dust.  Is  it 
winter  ?  You  see  the  scavengers  do  not  vary  in  number 
and  activity  according  to  the  quantity  of  mud ;  and  if 
there  comes  a  heavy  fall  of  snow,  you  find  the  thorough- 
fares remaining  for  nearly  a  week  in  a  scarcely  passable 
state,  without  an  eifort  being  made  even  in  the  heart  of 
London  to  meet  the  exigency.  The  late  snow-storm,  in- 
deed, supplied  a  neat  antithesis  between  the  two  orders  of 
agency  in  the  effects  it  respectively  produced  upon  omni- 
buses and  cabs.  Not  being  under  a  law-fixed  tariif,  the 
omnibuses  put  on  extra  horses  and  raised  their  fares.  The 
cabs,  on  the  contrary,  being  limited  in  their  charges  by  an 
Act  of  Parliament  which,  with  the  usual  shortsightedness, 
never  contemplated  such  a  contingency  as  this,  declined 
to  ply,  deserted  the  stands  and  the  stations,  left  luckless 
travellers  to  stumble  home  with  their  luorcrafre  as  best  thev 
might,  and  so  became  useless  at  the  very  time  of  all  others 
when  they  were  most  wanted !  Not  only  by  its  unsus- 
ceptibility  of  adjustment  does  officialism  entaU  serious  in- 
conveniences, but  it  likewise  entails  great  injustices.  In 
this  case  of  cabs  for  example,  it  has  resulted  since  the  late 
change  of  law,  that  old  cabs,  which  were  before  saleable 


INJUSTICE  OF  OFFICIALISM.  Yl 

at  10/.  and  121.  each,  are  now  unsaleable  and  have  to  be 
broken  up;  and  thus  legislation  has  robbed  cab-proprietors 
of  part  of  their  capitaL  Again,  the  recently-passed  Smoke- 
Bill  for  London,  which  applies  only  within  certain  pre- 
scribed limits,  has  the  effect  of  taxing  one  manufacturer 
while  leaving  untaxed  his  competitor  working  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile ;  and  so,  as  we  are  credibly  informed, 
gives  one  advantage  of  1,500/.  a  year  over  another.  These 
typify  the  infinity  of  wrongs,  varying  in  degrees  of  hard- 
ship, which  legal  regulations  necessarily  involve.  Society, 
a  living,  growing  organism,  placed  within  apparatuses  of 
dead,  rigid,  mechanical  formulas,  cannot  fail  to  be  ham- 
pered and  pinched.  The  only  agencies  which  can  efficiently 
serve  it,  are  those  through  which  its  pulsations  hourly 
flow,  and  which  change  as  it  changes. 

^'  How  invariably  officialism  becomes  corrupt  every  one  ^ 
knows.  Exposed  to  no  such  antiseptic  as  free  competi- 
tion— ^not  dependent  for  existence,  as  private  unendowed 
organizations  are,  upon  the  maintenance  of  a  vigorous 
vitality ;  all  law-made  agencies  fall  into  an  inert,  over-fed 
state,  from  which  to  disease  is  a  short  step.  Salaries  flow 
in  irrespective  of  the  activity  with  which  duty  is  performed ; 
continue  after  duty  wholly  ceases ;  become  rich  prizes  for 
the  idle  well  born ;  and  prompt  to  perjury,  to  bribery,  to 
simony.  East  India  directors  are  elected  not  for  any 
administrative  capacity  they  may  have;  but  they  buy 
votes  by  promised  patronage — a  patronage  alike  asked 
and  given,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  welfare  of  a  hundred 
millions  of  people.  Registrars  of  wills  not  only  get  many 
thousands  a  year  each  for  doing  work  which  their  misera- 
bly paid  deputies  leave  half  done ;  but  they,  in  some  cases, 
defraud  the  revenue,  and  that  after  repeated  reprimands. 
Dockyard  promotion  is  the  result  not  of  efficient  services, 
but  of  political  favouritism.  That  they  may  continue  to 
hold  rich  livings,  clergymen   preach  what  they  do  not 


Y2  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

believe ;  bishops  make  false  returns  of  their  revenues ; 
and  at  their  elections  to  college-fellowships,  well-to-do 
priests  make  oath  that  they  are  pauper,  pius  et  doctus. 
From  the  local  inspector  whose  eyes  are  shut  to  an  abuse 
by  a  contractor's  present,  up  to  the  prime  minister  who 
finds  lucrative  berths  for  his  relations,  this  venality  is 
daily  illustrated ;  and  that  in  spite  of  public  reprobation 
and  perpetual  attempts  to  prevent  it.  As  we  once  heard 
said  by  a  State-official  of  twenty-five  years'  standing — 
"  Wherever  there  is  government  there  is  villainy."  It  is 
the  inevitable  result  of  destroying  the  direct  connection 
between  the  profit  obtained  and  the  work  performed,  l^o 
incompetent  person  hopes,  by  ofiering  a  douceur  in  the 
Times,  to  get  a  permanent  place  in  a  mercantile  office.  But 
where,  as  under  government,  there  is  no  employer's  self- 
interest  to  forbid — where  the  appointment  is  made  by  some 
one  on  whom  inefficiency  entails  no  loss ;  there  a  douceur 
is  operative.  In  hospitals,  in  public  charities,  in  literary 
funds,  in  endowed  schools,  in  all  social  agencies  in  which 
duty  done  and  income  gained  do  not  go  hand  in  hand,  the 
like  corruj)tion  is  found ;  and  is  great  in  proportion  as  the 
dependence  of  income  upon  duty  is  remote.  In  State- 
organizations,  therefore,  corruption  is  unavoidable.  In 
trading  organizations  it  rarely  makes  its  appearance ;  and 
when  it  does,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  soon  pro- 
vides a  remedy. 

s  To  all  which  broad  contrasts  add  this,  that  while  pri- 
vate bodies  are  enterprising  and  progressive,  public  bodies 
are  unchanging,  and,  indeed,  obstructive.  That  officialism 
should  be  inventive  nobody  expects.  That  it  should  go 
out  of  its  easy  mechanical  routine  to  introduce  improve- 
ments, and  this  at  a  considerable  expense  of  thought  and 
application,  without  the  prospect  of  profit,  is  not  to  be 
supposed.  But  it  is  not  simply  stationary ;  fit  strenuously 
resists  every  amendment  either  in  itself  or  in  any  thing 


CORRUPTION   AND   OBSTRUCTIVENESS.  73 

with  wliicli  it  deals^  Until  now  that  County  Courts  are 
taking  away  their  practice,  all  officers  of  the  law  have 
doggedly  opposed  law  reform.  The  universities  have 
maintained  an  old  curriculum  for  centuries  after  it  ceased 
to  be  fit ;  and  are  now  struggling  to  prevent  a  threatened 
reconstruction.  Every  postal  improvement  has  been  vehe- 
mently protested  against  by  the  postal  authorities.  Mr. 
Whiston  can  say  how  pertinacious  is  the  conservatism  of 
Church  grammar-schools.  Not  even  the  gravest  conse- 
quences in  view  preclude  official  resistance:  witness  the 
fact  that  though,  as  a  while  since  mentioned,  Professor  Bar- 
low reported  in  1820,  of  the  Admiralty  compasses  then  in 
store,  that  "at  least  one-half  were  mere  lumber,"  yet  not- 
withstanding the  constant  risk  of  shipwrecks  thence  aris- 
ing "  very  little  amelioration  in  this  state  of  things  appears 
to  have  taken  place  until  1838  to  1849."*  Nor  is  official 
obstructiveness  to  be  readily  overborne  even  by  a  power- 
ful public  opinion:  witness  the  fact  that,  though,  for 
generations,  nine-tenths  of  the  nation  have  disapproved 
this  ecclesiastical  system  which  pampers  the  drones  and 
starves  the  workers,  and  though  commissions  have  been 
appointed  to  rectify  it,  it  still  remains  substantially  as  it 
was:  witness  again  the  fact,  that  though  since  1818,  there 
have  been  a  score  attempts  to  rectify  the  scandalous  mal- 
administration of  Charitable  Trusts — though  ten  times  in 
ten  successive  years,  remedial  measures  have  been  brought 
before  Parliament — ^the  abuses  still  continue  in  all  their 
grossness.  Not  only  do  these  legal  instrumentalities  resist 
reforms  in  themselves,  but  they  hinder  reforms  in  other 
things.  In  defending  their  vested  interests,  the  clergy  delay 
the  closing  of  town  burial-grounds.  As  Mr.  Lindsay  can 
show,  government  emigration-agents  are  checking  the  use  of 
iron  for  sailing-vessels.     Excise  officersfprevent  improve- 

*  "  Rudimentary  Magnetism,  by  Sir  W.  Snow  Earns.    Part  III.,  p.  145. 
4 


74  OVEB-LEGISLATION. 

ments  in  the  processes  they  have  to  overlook^)  That  organic 
conservatism  which  is  visible  in  the  daily  conduct  of  all 
men,  is  an  obstacle  which  in  private  life  self-interest  slowly 
overcomes.  The  prospect  of  profit  does,  in  the  end,  teach 
farmers  that  deep  draining  is  good ;  though  it  takes  long 
to  do  this.  Manufacturers  do,  ultimately,  learn  the  most 
economical  speed  at  which  to  work  their  steam-engines ; 
though  precedent  has  long  misled  them.  But  in  the  pub- 
lic service,  where  there  is  no  self-interest  to  overcome  it, 
this  conservatism  exerts  its  full  force;  and  produces  results 
alike  disastrous  and  absurd.  For  generations  after  book- 
keeping had  become  universal,  the  Exchequer  accounts 
were  kept  by  notches  cut  on  sticks.  In  the  estimates  for 
the  current  year  appears  the  item,  "  Trimming  the  oil- 
lamps  at  the  Horse-Guards." 

^f  Between  these  law-made  agencies,  and  the  sponta- 
neously-formed ones,  who  then  can  hesitate?/  The  one 
class  are  slow,  stupid,  extravagant,  unadaptive,  corrupt, 
and  obstructive :  can  any  point  out  in  the  other,  vices 
that  balance  these  ?  It  is  tnie  that  trade  has  its  dislipn- 
esties,  speculation  its  follies.  These  are  evils  inevitably 
entailed  by  the  existing  imperfections  of  humanity.  It  is 
equally  true,  howeveri  that  these  imperfections  of  human- 
ity are  shared  by  State-functionaries ;  and  that  being  un- 
checked in  them  by  the  same  stem  discipline,  they  grow 
to  far  worse  results.)' Given  a  race  of  men  having  a  cer 
tain  proclivity  to  misconduct,  and  the  question  is,  whether 
a  society  of  these  men  shall  be  so  organized  that  ill-con- 
duct directly  brings  punishment,  or  whether  it  shall  be  so 
organized  that  punishment  is  but  remotely  contingent  on 
ill-conduct?  Which  will  be  the  most  healthftil  commu- 
nity— ^that  in  which  agents  who  perform  their  functions 
badly,  immediately  suffer  by  the  withdrawal  of  public 
patronage  ;  or  that  in  which  such  agents  can  be  made  to 
Buffer  only  through  an  apparatus  of  meetings,  petitions, 


ADVANTAGES   OF  PRIVATE   ENTEKPEISE.  75 

polling  booths,  parliamentary  divisions,  cabinet-councils, 
and  red-tape  documents  ?  Is  it  not  an  absurdly  Utopian 
hope  that  men  will  behave  better  when  correction  is  far 
removed  and  uncertain  than  when  it  is  near  at  hand  and 
inevitable  ?  Yet  this  is  the  hope  which  most  political 
schemers  unconsciously  cherish.  Listen  to  their  plans, 
and  you  find  that  just  what  they  propose  to  have  done, 
they  assume  the  appointed  agents  will  do.  (That  func- 
tionaries are  trustworthy  is  their  first  postulate.  Doubt- 
less could  good  officers  be  ensured,  much  might  be  said 
for  officialism ;  just  as  despotism  would  have  its  advan- 
tages could  we  ensure  a  good  despot.  / 

If,  however,  we  would  duly  realize  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  artificial  and  the  natural  modes  of  achieving 
social  desiderata,  we  must  look  not  only  at  the  vices  of 
the  one  but  at  the  virtues  of  the  other.  These  are  many 
and  important.  Consider  first  how  immediately  every 
private  enterprise  is  dependent  upon  the  need  for  it ;  and 
how  impossible  it  is  for  it  to  continue  if  there  be  no  need. 
Daily  are  new  trades  and  new  companies  established.  If 
they  subserve  some  existing  public  want,  they  take  root 
and  grow.  K  they  do  not,  they  die  of  inanition.  It 
needs  no  agitation,  no  act  of  Parliament,  to  put  them 
down,  f  As  with  all  natural  organizations,  if  there  is  no  ^ 
function  for  them,  no  nutriment  comes  to  them,  and  they 
dwindle  awaj.J  Moreover,  not  only  do  the  new  agencies 
disappear  if  they  are  superfluous,  but  the  old  ones  cease 
to  be  when  they  have  done  their  work.  Unlike  law-made 
instrumentalities — unlike  Herald's  Offices,  which  are  main- 
tained for  ages  after  heraldry  has  lost  all  value — unlike 
Ecclesiastical  Courts,  which  continue  to  flourish  for  gener- 
ations after  they  have  become  an  abomination  ;  these  pri- 
vate instrumentalities  dissolve  when  they  become  needless. 
A  widely-ramified  coaching  system  ceases  to  exist  as  soon 
as  a  more  efficient  railway  system  comes  into  being.    And 


76  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

not  simply  does  it  cease  to  exist,  and  to  abstract  funds, 
but  the  materials  of  which  it  was  made  are  absorbed  and 
turned  to  use.  Coachmen,  guards,  and  the  rest,  are  em- 
ployed to  profit  elsewhere — do  not  continue  for  twenty 
years  a  burden,  like  the  compensated  officials  of  some 
abolished  department  of  the  State. 

Consider  again  how  necessarily  these  un ordained  agen- 
cies fit  themselves  to  their  work.  It  is  a  law  of  all  organ- 
ized things,  that  efficiency  presupposes  apprenticeship. 
Not  only  is  it  true  that  the  young  merchant  must  begin 
by  carrying  letters  to  the  post,  that  the  way  to  be  a  suc- 
cessful innkeeper  is  to  commence  as  waiter — ^not  only  is  it 
true  that  in  the  development  of  the  intellect  there  must 
come  first  the  perceptions  of  identity  and  duality,  next  of 
number,  and  that  without  these,  arithmetic,  algebra,  and 
the  infinitesimal  calculus,  remain  impracticable ;  but  it  is 
true  that  there  is  no  part  of  any  organism  whatever  but 
begins  in  some  very  simple  form  with  some  insignificant 
function,  and  passes  to  its  final  stage  through  successive 
phases  of  complexity.  Every  heart  is  at  first  a  mere 
pulsatile  sac ;  every  brain  begins  as  a  slight  enlargement 
of  the  spinal  cord.  This  law  equally  extends  to  the 
social  organism.  An  instrumentality  that  is  to  work  well 
must  not  be  designed  and  suddenly  put  together  by  legis- 
lators, but  must  grow  gradually  from  a  germ ;  each  suc- 
cessive addition  must  be  tried  and  proved  good  by  expe- 
rience before  another  addition  is  made ;  and  by  this  tenta- 
tive process  only,  can  an  efficient  instrumentality  be  pro- 
duced. From  a  trustworthy  man  who  receives  deposits 
of  money,  insensibly  grows  up  a  vast  banking  system, 
with  its  notes,  checks,  bills,  its  complex  transactions, 
and  its  Clearing-house.  Pack-horses,  then  waggons,  then 
coaches,  then  steam-carriages  on  common  roads,  and, 
finally,  steam-carriages  on  roads  made  for  them — sueh  has 
beien  the  slow  genesis  of  our  present  means  of  communi- 


SUPEEIORITY  OF   SPONTANEOUS   AGENCIES.  77 

cation.  Not  a  trade  in  the  directory  but  has  formed  itself 
an  apparatus  of  manufacturers,  brokers,  travellers,  and  dis- 
tributors, in  so  gradual  a  way  that  no  one  can  trace  the  steps. 

And  so  with  organizations  of  another  order.  The  Zoo- 
logical Gardens,  the  largest  and  best  thing  of  its  kind  in 
the  world,  began  as  the  private  collection  of  a  few  natur- 
alists. The  best  working-class  school  known — that  at 
Price's  factory — commenced  with  half-a-dozen  boys  sitting 
among  the  candle-boxes,  after  hours,  to  teach  themselves 
writing  with  worn-out  pens.  Mark,  too,  that  as  a  conse- 
quence of  their  mode  of  growth,  these  spontaneous  agen- 
cies expand  to  any  extent  required.  The  same  stimulus 
which  brought  them  into  being  makes  them  send  their 
ramifications  wherever  they  are  needed.  But  supply  does 
not  thus  readily  follow  demand  in  governmental  agencies. 
Appoint  a  board  and  a  stafi",  fix  their  duties,  and  let  the 
apparatus  have  a  generation  or  two  to  consolidate,  and 
you  cannot  get  it  to  fulfil  larger  requirements  without 
some  act  of  parliament  obtained  only  after  long  delay  and 
difficulty. 

Were  there  space,  much  more  might  be  said  upon  the 
superiority  of  what  naturalists  would  call  the  exogenous 
order  of  institutions  over  the  endogenous  one.  But,  from 
the  point  of  view  indicated,  the  further  contrasts  between 
their  characteristics  will  be  sufficiently  visible. 

Hence  then  the  fact,  that  while  the  one  order  of  means 
is  ever  failing,  making  worse,  or  producing  more  evils 
than  it  cures,  the  other  order  of  means  is  ever  succeeding, 
ever  improving.  /.  Strong  as  it  looks  at  the  outsetiState- 
agency  perpetually  disappoints  every  one.)  Puny  as  are 
its  first  stages,  private  effort  daily  achieves  results  that 
astound  the  world.  It  is  not  only  that  johit-stock  com- 
panies do  so  much — it  is  not  only  that  by  them  a  whole 
kingaom  is  covered  with  railways  in  the  same  time  that 
it  takes  the  Admiralty  to  build  a  hundred-gun  ship ;  but 


78  OVEE-LEGISLATIOK. 

it  is  that  law-made  instrumentalities  are  outdone  even  by- 
individuals.  -  The  often  quoted  contrast  between  the  Acad- 
emy whose  forty  members  took  fifty-six  years  to  compile 
the  French  Dictionary,  while  Dr.  Johnson  alone  compiled 
the  English  one  in  eight— a  contrast  still  marked  enough 
after  making  due  set-off  for  the  difference  in  the  works — 
is  by  no  means  without  a  parallel.  Sundry  kindred  facts 
may  be  cited.  That  great  sanitary  desideratum — the 
bringing  of  the  New  River  to  London — which  the  wealth- 
iest corporation  in  the  world  attempted  and  failed,  Sir 
Hugh  Myddleton  achieved  single-handed.  ^  The  first  canal 
in  England — a  work  of  which  government  might  have 
been  thought  the  fit  projector,  and  the  only  competent 
executor — was  undertaken  and  finished  as  the  private 
speculation  of  one  man — the  Duke  of  Bridgewater.  By 
his  own  unaided  exertions,  William  Smith  completed  that 
great  achievement,  the  geological  map  of  Great  Britain ; 
meanwhile,  the  Ordnance  Survey — a  very  accurate  and 
elaborate  one,  it  is  true — ^has  already  occupied  a  large 
staff  for  some  two  generations,  and  will  not  be  completed 
before  the  lapse  of  another.  Howard  and  the  prisons  of 
Europe ;  Bianconi  and  Irish  travelling  ;  Waghom  and  the 
Overland  route  ;  Dargan  and  the  Dublin  Exhibition — do 
not  these  suggest  startling  contrasts?  While  private  gen- 
tlemen like  Mr.  Denison,  build  model  lodging-houses  iu 
which  the  deaths  are  greatly  below  the  average,  the  State 
builds  barracks  in  which  the  deaths  are  greatly  above  the 
average,  even  of  the  much-pitied  town  populations :  bar- 
racks, which,  though  filled  with  picked  men  under  medi- 
cal supervision,  show  an  annual  mortality  per  thousand  of 
13*6,  17-9  and  even  20*4;  though  among  civilians  of  the 
same  age  in  the  same  places,  the  mortality  per  thousand 
is  but  11-9.*    While  the  State  has  laid  out  large  sums,  at 

,  *  See  "  Statistical  Reports  on  the  Sickness,  Mortality,  and  Invaliding 
amongst  the  Troops."    1853. 


EFFICIENCY   OF   PRIVATE   ENTEEPRISE.  79 

Parkhurst,  in  the  effort  to  reform  juvenile  criminals,  who 
are  not  reformed;  Mr.  Ellis  takes  fifteen  of  the  worst 
young  thieves  in  London — thieves  considered  by  the  po- 
lice utterly  irreclaimable — and  reforms  them  all.  Side  by 
side  with  the  Emigration  Board,  under  whose  management 
hundreds  die  of  fever  from  close  packing,  and  under  whose 
licence  sail  vessels  which,  like  the  Washington,  are  the 
homes  of  fraud,  brutality,  tyranny,  and  obscenity,  stands 
Mrs.  Chisholm's  Family  Colonization  Loan  Society,  which 
does  not  provide  worse  accommodation  than  ever  before, 
but  much  better ;  which  does  not  demoralize  by  promis- 
cuous crowding,  but  improves  by  mild  discipline  ;  which 
does  not  pauperize  by  charity,  but  encourages  providence; 
which  does  not  increase  our  taxes,  but  is  self-supporting. 
Here  are  lessons  for  the  lovers  of  legislation.  The  State 
outdone  by  a  working  shoemaker !  The  State  beaten  by 
a  woman ! 

Yet  still  stronger  becomes  this  contrast  between  the 
results  of  public  action  and  private  action,  when  we  re- 
member that  the  one  is  constantly  eked  out  by  the  other, 
even  in  doing  the  things  unavoidably  left  to  it.  Passing 
over  military  and  naval  departments,  in  which  much  is 
done  by  contractors,  and  not  by  men  receiving  govern- 
ment pay — passing  over  the  Church,  which  is  constantly 
extended  not  by  law  but  by  voluntary  effort — passing  over 
the  Universities,  where  all  the  efficient  teaching  is  given 
not  by  the  appointed  officers  but  by  private  tutors  ;  let  us 
look  at  the  mode  in  which  our  judicial  system  is  worked. 
Lawyers  perpetually  tell  us  that  codification  is  impossi- 
ble ;  and  there  are  many  simple  enough  to  believe  them. 
Merely  remarking,  in  passing,  that  what  government  and 
all  its  employes  cannot  do  for  the  Acts  of  Parliament  in 
general,  was  done  for  the  1,500  Customs  acts  in  1825  by 
the  energy  of  one  man — ^Mr.  Deacon  Hume — let  us  se^ 
how  the  absence  of  a  digested  system  of  law  is  made 


80  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

good.  In  preparing  themselves  for  the  bar,  and  finally 
the  bench,  law  students,  by  years  of  research,  have  to  gain 
an  acquaintance  with  this  vast  mass  of  unorganized  legis- 
lation ;  and  that  organization  which  it  is  held  impossible 
for  the  State  to  effect,  it  is  held  possible  (sly  sarcasm  on 
the  State !)  for  each  student  to  effect  for  himself.  Every 
judge  can  privately  codify,  though  "  united  wisdom  "  can- 
not. But  how  is  each  judge  enabled  to  codify  ?  By  the 
private  enterprise  of  men  who  have  prepared  the  way  for 
him ;  by  the  partial  codifications  of  Blackstone,  Coke,  and 
others ;  by  the  digests  of  Partnership  Law,  Bankruptcy 
Law,  Law  of  Patents,  Laws  affecting  Women,  and  the 
rest  that  daily  issue  from  the  press ;  by  abstracts  of  cases, 
and  volumes  of  reports — every  one  of  them  unofficial  prod- 
ucts. Sweep  away  all  these  fractional  codifications  made 
by  individuals,  and  the  State  would  be  in  utter  ignorance 
of  its  own  laws !  Had  not  the  bunglings  of  legislators 
been  made  good  by  private  enterprise,  the  administration 
of /justice  would  have  been  impossible !  ^ 

/fWhere,  then,  is  the  warrant  for  the  constantly-proposed 
extensions  of  legislative  action  'it  If,  as  we  have  seen  in  a 
large  class  of  case^  government  measures  do  not  remedy 
the  evils  they  aim  at^  if,  in  another  large  classithey  make 
these  evils  worse  instead  of  remedying  thenii  and  if,  in 
a  third  large  class/  while  curing  some  evils  'they  entail 
others,  and  often  greater  one^if,  as  we  lately  saw,  pub- 
lic action  is  continually  outdone  in  efficiency  by  private 
action^  and  if,  as  just  shown/ private  action  is  obliged  to 
make  up  for  the  shortcomings  of  public  action,  even  in 
fulfilling  the  vital  functions  of  the  Stat ?•)  what  reason  is 
there  for  wishing  more  public  administrations  ?  The 
advocates  of  such  may  claim  credit  for  philanthropy,  and 
for  ingenuity,  but  not  for  wisdom ;  unless  wisdom  is  shown 
by  disregarding  experience. 


OBJECTIONS   TO  THE  ARGUMENT.  81 

"  Much  of  this  argument  is  beside  the  question,"  will 
rejoin  our  opponents.  4 "  The  true  point  at  issue  is,  not 
whether  individuals  and  companies  outdo  the  State  when 
they  come  in  competition  with  it,  but  whether  there  are* 
not  certain  social  wants  which  the  State  alone  can  satisfy^ 
Admitting  that  private  enterprise  does  much,  and  does  it 
well,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  we  have  daily  thrust  upon 
our  notice  many  desiderata  which^t  has  not  achieved^  and 
is  not  achieving.  In  these  cases  its  incompetency  is  ob- 
vious ;  and  in  these  cases,  therefore,  it  behooves  the  State 
to  make  up  for  its  deficiencies :  doing  this,  if  not  well,  yet 
as  well  as  it  can." 

L  Not  to  fall  back  upon  the  many  experiences  already 
quotedf  showing  that  the  State  is  likely  to  do  more  harm 
than  good  in  attempting  this  ;^nor  to  dwell  upon  the  fact, 
that,  in  most  of  the  alleged  cases,  fihe  apparent  insuffi- 
ciency of  private  enterprise  is  a  result  of  previous  State- 
interference3  as  may  be  conclusively  shown ;  let  us  deal 
with  the  proposition  on  its  own  terms.  Though  there 
would  have  been  no  need  for  a  Mercantile  Marine  Act  to 
prevent  the  unseaworthiness  of  ships,  and  the  ill-treatment 
of  sailors,  had  there  been  no  Navigation  Laws  to  produce 
these ;  and  though  were  all  like  cases  of  evils  and  short- 
comings directly  or  indirectly  produced  by  law,  taken  out 
of  the  category,  there  would  probably  remain  but  small 
basis  for  the  plea  above  put  i"  yet  let  it  be  granted  that, 
every  artificial  obstacle  being  removed,  there  would  still 
remain  many  desiderata  unachieved,  which  there  was  no 
seeing  how  spontaneous  effort  could  achieve^  \Jjet  all  this, 
we  say,  be  granted ;  the  propriety  of  legislative  action 
may  yet  be  rightly  questioned^ 

For  the  said  plea  involves  the^ quite  unwarrantable 

assumption  that  social  agencies  will  continue  to  work  only 

as  they  are  now  working ;  and  will  produce  no  results  but 

those  they  seem  likely  to  produce^  It  is  the  habit  of  this 

4* 


4 


82  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

school  of  thinkers  to  make  a  limited  human  intelligence 
the  measure  of  phenomena  which  it  requires  omniscience 
to  grasp.  That  which  it  does  not  see  the  way  to,  it  does 
•not  believe  will  take  place.  Though  society  has,  genera- 
tion after  generation,  been  growing  to  developments 
which  none  foresaw,  yet  there  is  no  practical  belief  in 
unforeseen  developments  in  the  future.  The  parliament- 
ary debates  constitute  an  elaborate  balancing  of  proba- 
bilities, having  for  data  things  as  they  are.  Meanwhile 
every  day  adds  new  elements  to  things  as  Jhey  are,  and 
seemingly  improbable  results  constantly  occuiy  Who,  a  few 
years  ago,  expected  that  a  Leicester-square  refugee  would 
shortly  become  Emperor  of  the  French?  Who  looked 
for  free  trade  from  a  landlords'  ministry  ?  Who  dreamed 
that  Irish  over-population  would  spontaneously  cure  itself, 
as  it  is  now  doing  ?/(  So  far  from  social  changes  arising  in 
likely  ways,  they  almost  always  arise  in  ways  that,  to 
common  sense,  appear  unlikely!^  A  barber's  shop  was  not 
a  probable-looking  place  for  the  germination  of  the  cotton 
manufacture.  No  one  supposed  that  important  agricul- 
tural improvements  would  come  from  a  Leadenhall-street 
tradesman.  A  farmer  would  have  been  the  last  man 
thought  of  to  bring  to  bear  the  screw  propulsion  of  steam- 
ships. The  invention  of  a  new  order  of  architecture  we 
should  have  hoped  from  any  one  rather  than  a  gardener. 
Yet  while  the  most  unexpected  changes  are  daily  wrought 
out  in  the  strangest  ways,  legislation  daily  assumes  that 
things  will  go,  just  as  human  foresight  thinks  they  will 
go.  Though  by  the  trite  exclamation — "What  would 
our  forefathers  have  said ! "  there  is  a  constant  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  fact£  that  wonderful  results  have  been  achieved 
in  modes  wholly  unforeseen,  yet  there  seems  no  belief  that 
this  will  be  again.  Would  it  not  be  wise  to  admit  such  a 
probability  into  our  politics  ?  May  we  not  rationally  infer 
that,  as  in  the  past  so  in  the  future^ 


ADEQUACY  OF  NATUEAL  AGENCIES.  83 

(  This  Strong  faith  in  State-agencies  is,  however,  accom- 
IDanied  by  so  weak  a  faith  in  natural  agencies^ (the  two 
being  antagonistic),  that,  spite  of  past  experience,  ^t  will 
by  many  be  thought  absurd  to  rest  in  the  conviction,  that 
existing  social  needs  will  be  spontaneously  met,  though 
we  cannot  say  how  they  will  be  met^^  ^Nevertheless,  illus- 
trations exactly  to  the  point  are  now  transpiring  before 
their  eyes.  Instance  the  adulteration  of  food — a  thing 
which  law  has  unsuccessfully  tried  to  stop  time  after  time, 
and  which  yet  there  seemed  no  power  but  law  competent 
to  deal  with.  Law,  however,  having  tried  and  failed, 
here  steps  in  The  Lancet^  and,  with  a  view  to  extend  its 
circulation,  begins  publishing  weekly  analyses,  and  gives 
lists  of  honest  and  dishonest  tradesmen.  By-and-by  we 
shall  be  having  such  lists  published  in  other  papers,  as 
portions  of  these  reports  have  been  already.  And  when 
every  retailer  finds  himself  thus  liable  to  have  his  sins 
told  to  all  his  customers,  a  considerable  improvement  may 
be  expected.  Who,  now,  would  have  looked  for  such  a 
remedy  as  this  ? 

Instance,  again,  the  scarcely  credible  phenomenon 
lately  witnessed  in  the  midland  counties.  Every  one  has 
heard  of  the  distress  of  the  stockingers — a  chronic  evil  of 
some  generation  or  two's  standing.  Repeated  petitions 
have  prayed  Parliament  for  remedy ;  and  legislation  has 
made  attempts,  but  without  success.  The  disease  seemed  in- 
curable. Two  or  three  years  since,  however,  the  circular 
knitting  machine  was  introduced — a  machine  immensely 
outstripping  the  old  stocking-frame  in  productiveness,  but 
which  can  make  only  the  legs  of  stockings,  not  the  feet. 
Doubtless,  the  Leicester  and  Nottingham  artisans  regarded 
this  new  engine  with  alarm,  as  one  likely  to  intensify  their 
miseries.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  wholly  removed  them. 
By  cheapening  production,  it  has  so  enormously  increased 
consumption,  that  the  old  stocking-frames,  which  were 


84  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

before  too  many  by  half  for  the  work  to  be  done,  are  now 
all  employed  in  putting  feet  to  the  legs  which  new  ma- 
chines make.  How  insane  would  he  have  been  thought 
who  anticipated  cure  from  such  a  cause  !  If  from  the 
unforeseen  removal  of  evils  we  turn  to  the  unforeseen 
achievement  of  desiderata,  we  find  like  cases.  No  one 
recognized  in  Oersted's  electro-magnetic  discovery  the 
germ  of  a  new  agency  for  the  catching  of  criminals  and 
the  facilitation  of  commerce.  No  one  expected  railways 
to  become  agents  for  the  diffusion  of  cheap  literature,  as 
they  now  are.  No  one  supposed  when  the  Society  of 
Arts  was  planning  an  international  exhibition  of  manufac- 
tures, that  the  result  would  be  a  place  for  popular  recrea- 
tion and  culture  at  Sydenham. 

But  there  is  yet  a  deeper  reply  to  the  appeals  of  impa- 
tient philanthropists.  It  is  not  simplWthat  social  vitality 
may  be  trusted  by-and-by  to  fulfil  each  much-exaggerated 
requirement  in  some  quiet  spontaneous  way/-pt  is  not  sim- 
ply that  when  thus  naturally  fulfilled  it  will  be  fulfilled 
efficiently")  instead  of  being  botched  as  when  attempted 
artificially  ;Cbut  it  is  that  until  thus  naturally  fulfilled  it 
ought  not  to  be  fulfilled  at  all^  lA  startling  paradox,  this, 
to  many ;  but  one  quite  justifiable,  as  we  hope  shortly  to 
show. 

It  was  pointed  out  some  distance  back,  that  the  force 
which  produces  and  sets  in  motion  every  social  mechan- 
ism— governmental,  mercantile,  or  other-^is  some  accumu- 
lation of  personal  desires.  yAs  there  is  no  individual  ac- 
tion without  a  desire,  so,  it  was  urged,  there  can  be  no 
social  action  without  an  aggregate  desire.  To  which 
there  here  remains  to  add,  that  as  it  is  a  general  law  of 
the  individual  that  the  intenser  desires — those  correspond- 
ing to  all-essential  functions — are  satisfied  first,  and  if  need 
be  to  the  neglect  of  the  weaker  and  less  important  ones ; 
so,  it  must  be  a  general  law  of  society  that  the  chief  requi- 


ORDER  OF   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION.  85 

sites  of  social  life — those  necessary  to  popular  existence 
and  multiplication — will,  in  the  natural  order  of  things, 
be  subserved  before  those  of  a  less  pressing  kind.  Hav- 
ing a  common  root  in  humanity,  the  two  series  of  phe- 
nomena cannot  fail  to  accord.  As  the  private  man  first 
ensures  himself  food ;  then  clothing  and  shelter ;  these 
being  secured,  takes  a  wife  ;  and,  if  he  can  afford  it,  pres- 
ently supplies  himself  with  carpeted  rooms  and  piano,  and 
wines,  hires  servants,  and  gives  dinner  parties  ;  so,  in  the 
evolution  of  society,  we  see  first  a  combination  for  defence 
against  enemies,  and  for  the  better  pursuit  of  game  ;  by- 
and-by  come  such  political  arrangements  as  are  needed  to 
maintain  this  combination ;  afterwards,  under  a  demand 
for  more  food,  more  clothes,  more  houses,  arises  division 
of  labour ;  and  when  satisfaction  of  the  animal  wants  has 
been  tolerably  provided  for,  there  slowly  grow  up  science, 
and  literature,  and  the  arts.?  Is  it  not  obvious  that  these 
successive  evolutions  occur  in  the  order  of  their  import- 
ance ?  Is  it  not  obvious,  that  being  each  of  them  pro- 
duced by  an  aggregate  desire  they  miLst  occur  in  the  order 
of  their  importance,  if  it  be  a  law  of  the  individual  that 
the  strongest  desires  correspond  to  the  most  needful  ac- 
tions ?  Is  it  not,  indeed,  obvious  that  the  order  of  rela- 
tive importance  will  be  more  uniformly  followed  in  social 
action  than  in  individual  action  ;  seeing  that  the  personal 
idiosyncrasies  which  disturb  that  order  in  the  latter  case 
are  averaged  in  the  former  ? 

If  any  one  does  not  see  this,  let  him  take  up  a  book 
describing  life  at  the  gold-diggings.  There  he  will  find 
the  whole  process  exhibited  in  little.  He  will  read  that 
as  the  diggers  must  eat,  they  are  compelled  to  offer  such 
prices  for  food,  that  it  pays  better  to  keep  a  store  than  to 
dig.  As  the  store-keepers  must  get  supplies,  they  will 
give  enormous  sums  for  carriage  from  the  nearest  town ; 
and  some  men  quickly  seeing  they  can  get  rich  at  that, 


86  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

make  it  their  business.  This  brings  drays  and  horses 
into  demand ;  the  high  rates  draw  these  from  all  quarters, 
and  after  them  wheelwrights  and  harness-makers.  Black- 
smiths to  sharpen  pickaxes,  doctors  to  cure  fevers,  get  pay- 
exorbitant  in  proportion  to  the  need  for  them  ;  and  are  so 
brought  flocking  in  proportionate  numbers.  Presently 
commodities  become  scarce ;  more  must  be  fetched  from 
abroad;  sailors  must  have  increased  wages  to  prevent 
them  from  deserting  ;  this  necessitates  higher  charges  for 
freight ;  higher  freights  quickly  bring  more  ships  ;  and  so 
there  rapidly  develops  an  organization  for  supplying  goods 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Every  phase  of  this  evolu- 
tion takes  place  in  the  order  of  its  necessity ;  or  as  we  say 
— ^in  the  order  of  the  intensity  of  the  desires  subserved. 
Each  man  does  that  which  he  finds  pays  best ;  that  which 
pays  best  is  that  for  which  other  men  will  give  most ;  that 
for  which  they  will  give  most  is  that  which,  under  the 
circumstances,  they  most  desire.  Hence  the  succession 
must  be  throughout  from  the  more  important  to  the  less 
important.  A  requirement  which  at  any  period  still  re- 
mains unfulfilled,  must  be  one  for  the  fulfilment  of  which 
men  will  not  pay  so  much  as  to  make  it  worth  any  one's 
while  to  fulfil  it — must  be  a  less  requirement  than  all  the 
others  for  the  fulfilment  of  which  they  will  pay  more ;  and 
must  wait  until  other  more  needful  things  are  done.  Well, 
is  it  not  clear  that  the  same  law  holds  good  in  every  com- 
munity ?  Will  it  not  be  true  of  the  later  jihases  of  social 
evolution,  as  of  the  earlier,  that  when  uncontrolled  the 
smaller  desiderata  are  postponed  to  the  greater?  No 
reasonable  person  can  doubt  it. 

Hence,  then,  the  justification  of  the  seeming  paradox, 

\  (^  that  until  spontaneously  fulfilled  a  public  want  should  not 

be  fulfilled  at  all.)  It  must,  on  the  average,  result  in  our 

complex   state,  as  in  simpler   ones,^hat  the  thing  left 

undone  is  a  thing  by  doing  which  citizens  cannot  gain  so 


HOW  TO   FIND  WHAT  IS   MOST  NEEDFUL.  87 

much  as  by  doing  other  things — is  therefore  a  thing  which 
society  does  not  want  done  so  much  as  it  wants  these 
other  things  done>^(and  the  corollary  is,  that  to  effect  a 
neglected  thing  by  artificially  employing  citizens  to  do  it, 
is  to  leave  undone  some  more  important  thing  which  they 
would  have  been  doing — is  to  sacrifice  the  greater  requi- 
site to  the  smaller.)  / 

"  But,"  it  will  perhaps  be  objected,  "  if  the  things  done 
by  a  government,  or  at  least  by  a  representative  govern- 
ment, are  also  done  in  obedience  to  some  aggregate  desire, 
(why  may  we  not  look  for  this  normal  subordination  of 
the  more  needful  to  the  less  needful  in  them  too  V/  The 
reply  is,  that  though  they  have  a  certain  tendency  to  fol- 
low this  order — ^though  those  primal  desires  for  public 
defence  and  personal  protection,  out  of  which  government 
originates,  were  satisfied  through  its  instrumentality  in 
proper  succession — though  possibly  some  other  early  and 
simple  requirements  may  have  been  so  too  \Wq%  when  the 
desires  are  not  few,  universal,  and  intense,  but  like  those 
remaining  to  be  satisfied  in  the  latter  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion, numerous,  partial,  and  moderate,  the  judgment  of 
a  government  is  no  longer  to  be  trusted]  [To  select  out 
of  an  immense  number  of  minor  wants,  physical,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral,  felt  in  different  degrees  by  different 
classes,  and  by  a  total  mass  varying  in  every  case,  the 
want  that  is  most  pressing,  is  a  task  which  no  legislature 
can  accomplish. )  No  man  or  men  by  inspecting  society 
can  see  what  it  most  needs  ;  (^society  must  be  left  to  feel 
what  it  most  needsJ  /  The  mode  of  solution  must  be  exper- 
imental, not  theoretical.  When  left,  day  after  day,  to 
experience  evils  and  dissatisfactions  of  various  kinds, 
affecting  them  in  various  degrees,  citizens  gradually  ac- 
quire repugnance  to  these  proportionate  to  their  greatness, 
and  corresponding  desires  to  get  rid  of  them,  which  are 
likely  to  end  in  the  worst  inconvenience  being  first  re- 


88  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

moved.  And  however  irregular  this  process  may  be — 
and  we  admit  that  men's  habits  and  prejudices  produce 
many  anomalies,  or  seeming  anomalies,  in  it — ^it  is  a  pro- 
cess far  more  trustworthy  than  are  legislative  judgments. 
For  those  who  question  this  there  are  instances  ;  and  that 
the  parallel  may  be  the  more  conclusive,  we  will  take  a 
case  in  which  the  ruling  power  is  deemed  specially  fit  to 
decide  ;  we  refer  to  our  means  of  communication. 

Do  those  who  maintain  that  railways  would  have  been 
better  laid  out  and  constructed  by  government,  hold  that 
the  order  of  importance  would  have  been  as  uniformly 
followed  as  it  has  been  by  private  enterprise?  Under  the 
stimulus  of  an  enormous  trafiic — a  traffic  too  great  for  the 
then  existing  means — ^the  first  line  sprung  up  between 
Liverpool  and  Manchester.  Next  came  the  Grand  Junc- 
tion and  the  London  and  Birmingham ;  afterwards  the 
Great  Western,  the  South  Western,  the  South  Eastern, 
the  Eastern  Counties,  the  Midland.  Since  then  subsidiary 
lines  and  branches  have  occupied  our  capitalists.'  As 
they  were  quite  certain  to  do,  companies  made  first  the 
most  needed,  and  therefore  the  best-paying  lines;  under  the 
same  impulse  that  a  labourer  chooses  high  wages  in  prefer- 
ence to  low.  That  government  would  have  adopted  a  bet- 
ter order  can  hardly  be,  for  the  best  has  been  followed ; 
but  that  it  would  have  adopted  a  worse,  all  the  evidence 
we  have  goes  to  show.  In  default  of  materials  for  a  direct 
parallel,  we  might  quote  cases  of  injudicious  road-making 
from  India  and  the  colonies.  Or,  as  exemplifying  State- 
efforts  to  facilitate  communication,  we  might  dwell  on  the 
fact,  that  while  our  rulers  have  sacrificed  hundreds  of  lives 
and  spent  untold  treasure  in  seeking  a  Northwest  passage, 
which  would  be  useless  if  found,  they  have  left  the  explor- 
ation of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  the  making  railways 
and  canals  through  it,  to  private  companies.  But,  not 
to  make  much  of  this  indirect  evidence,  we  will  content 


ENGLISH   EXPERIENCE  IN   STATE  CANALS.  89 

ourselves  with  the  one  sample  of  a  State-made  channel  for 
commerce,  which  we  have  at  home — the  Caledonian  Canal. 
Up  to  the  present  time,  this  public  work  has  cost  upwards 
of  1,100,000?.;  it  has  now  been  open  for  many  years,  and 
salaried  emissaries  have  been  constantly  employed  to  get 
traffic  for  it ;  the  results,  as  given  in  its  forty-seventh 
annual  report,  issued  in  1852,  are — receipts  during  the 
year,  7,909/. ;  expenditure  ditto,  9,261?. — loss,  1,352?.  Has 
any  such  large  investment  been  made  with  such  a  pitiful 
result  by  a  private  canal  company? 

^  (^And  if  a  government  is  so  bad  a  judge  of  the  relative 
importance  of  social  requirements,  when  these  require- 
ments are  of  the  same  Jci7id,  how  worthless  a  judge  must  it 
be  when  they  are  of  different  kinds^  If,  where  a  fair  share 
of  intelligence  might  be  expected  to  lead  them  right,  leg- 
islators and  their  officers  go  so  wrong,  how  terribly  will 
they  err  where  no  amount  of  intelligence  would  suffice 
them — where  they  must  daily  decide  among  hosts  of 
needs,  bodily,  intellectual,  and  moral,  that  admit  of  no 
direct  comparison ;  and  how  disastrous  must  be  the  results 
if  they  act  out  their  erroneous  decisions.  Should  any  one 
need  this  bringing  home  to  him  by  an  illustration,  let  him 
read  the  following  extract  from  the  last  of  the  series  of 
letters  some  time  since  published  in  the  Morning  Chroni- 
cle^ on  the  state  of  agriculture  in  France.  After  express- 
ing the  opinion  that  French  farming  is  some  century  be- 
hind English  farming,  the  writer  goes  on  to  say : 

"  There  are  two  causes  principally  chargeable  with 
this.  In  the  first  place,  strange  as  it  m^y  seem  in  a  coun- 
try in  which  two-thirds  of  the  population  are  agricultur- 
ists, agriculture  is  a  very  imhonoured  occupation.  Devel- 
op in  the  slightest  degree  a  Frenchman's  mental  faculties, 
and  he  flies  to  a  town  as  surely  as  steel  filings  fly  to  a 
loadstone.  He  has  no  rural  tastes,  no  delight  in  rural 
habits.     A  French  amateur  farmer  would  indeed  be  a  sight 


90  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

to  see.  Again,  this  national  tendency  is  directly  encour- 
aged by  the  centralizing  system  of  government — by  the 
multitude  of  officials,  and  by  the  payment  of  all  function- 
aries. From  all  parts  of  France,  men  of  great  energy  and 
resource  struggle  up,  and  fling  themselves  on  the  world 
of  Paris.  There  they  try  to  become  great  functionaries. 
Through  every  department  of  the  eighty-four,  men  of  less 
energy  and  resource  struggle  up  to  the  chef-lieu — the  pro- 
vincial capital.  There  they  try  to  become  little  function- 
aries. Go  still  lower — deal  with  a  still  smaller  scale — and 
the  result  will  be  the  same.  As  is  the  department  to 
France,  so  is  the  arrondissement  to  the  department,  and  the 
commune  to  the  arrondissement.  All  who  have,  or  think 
they  have,  heads  on  their  shoulders,  struggle  into  towns  to 
fight  for  office.  All  who  are,  or  are  deemed  by  themselves 
or  others,  too  stupid  for  any  thing  else,  are  left  at  home  to 
till  the  fields,  and  breed  the  cattle,  and  prune  the  vines, 
as  their  ancestors  did  for  generations  before  them.  Thus 
there  is  actually  no  intelligence  left  in  the  country.  The 
whole  energy,  and  knowledge,  and  resource  of  the  land 
are  barreled  up  in  the  towns.  You  leave  one  city,  and  in 
many  cases  you  will  not  meet  an  educated  or  cultivated 
individual  until  you  arrive  at  another — all  between  is 
utter  intellectual  barrenness." — Morning  Chronicle^  Au- 
gust, 1851. 

To  what  end  now  is  this  constant  abstraction  of  able 
men  from  rural  districts  ?  To  the  end  that  there  may  be 
enough  functionaries  to  achieve  those  many  desiderata 
which  French  governments  have  thought  ought  to  be 
achieved — ^to  provide  amusements,  to  manage  mines,  to 
construct  roads  and  bridges  and  erect  numerous  buildings 
— to  print  books,  encourage  the  fine  arts,  control  this 
trade,  and  inspect  that  manufacture — ^to  do  all  the  thousand- 
and-one  things  which  the  State  does  in  France.  That  the 
army  of  officers  needed  for  this  may  be  maintained,  agri- 


HOW  IT  WORKS   m  FRANCE.  91 

culture  must  go  unofficered.  That  certain  social  conven- 
iences may  be  better  secured,  the  chief  social  necessity- 
is  neglected.  The  very  basis  of  the  national  life  is  sapped, 
to  gain  a  few  non-essential  advantages.  Said  we  not  truly, 
then,  that  until  a  requirement  is  spontaneously  fulfilled,  it 
should  not  be  fulfilled  at  all  ? 

And  here  indeed  we  may  recognize  the  close  kinship 
betweeimhe  fundamental  fallacy  involved  in  these  State- 
meddlings  and  the  fallacy  lately  exploded  by  the  free- 
trade  agitation.^  TThese  various  law-made  instrumentali- 
ties for  effecting  ends  that  might  otherwise  not  yet  be 
effected,  all  embody  a  subtler  form  of  the  protectionist 
hypothesis.^ (The  same  short-sightedness  which,  looking 
at  commerce,  prescribed  bounties  and  restrictions,  looking 
at  social  affaii's  in  general,  prescribes  these  multiplied 
administrations ;  and  the  same  criticism  applies  alike  to 
all  its  proceedingsJ 

For  was  not  the  error  that  vitiated  every  law  aiming 
at  the  artificial  maintenance  of  a  trade,  substantially  that 
which  we  have  just  been  dwelling  upon:  namely,  the 
overlooking  the  fact,  that  in  setting  people  to  do  one 
thing,  some  other  thing  is  necessarily  left  undone  ?  The 
statesmen  who  thought  it  wise  to  protect  home-made 
silks  against  French  silks,  did  so  under  the  impression  that 
the  manufacture  thus  secured  constituted  a  pure  gain  to 
the  nation.  They  did  not  reflect  that  the  men  employed 
in  this  manufacture  would  otherwise  have  been  producing 
something  else — a  something  else  which,  as  they  could 
produce  it  without  legal  help,  they  could  more  profitably 
produce.  Landlords  who  have  been  so  anxious  to  prevent 
foreign  wheat  from  displacing  their  own  wheat,  have 
never  duly  realized  the  fact,  that  if  their  fields  would  not 
yield  wheat  so  economically  as  to  prevent  the  feared  dis- 
placement, it  simply  proved  that  they  were  growing  unfit 


92  0TER-LEGI8LATI0N. 

crops  in  place,  of  fit  crops ;  and  so  working  their  land  at  a 
relative  loss/>(ln  all  cases  where,  by  restrictive  duties,  a 
trade  has  been  upheld  that  would  otherwise  not  have 
existed,  capital  has  been  turned  into  a  channel  less  pro- 
ductive than  .some  other  into  which  it  would  naturally 
have  flowed./  In  the  absence  of  these  restrictions,  the 
article  made  would  have  been  fetched  from  some  place 
where  it  was  more  cheaply  made ;  and  in  exchange  for  it 
we  should  have  given  some  article  in  which  aptitude  and 
local  circumstances  enabled  us  to  excel  those  with  whom 
we  thus  exchanged.  And  so,  to  pursue  certain  State- 
patronized  occupations,  men  have  been  drawn  from  more 
advantageous  occupations. 

Is  it  not,  then,  as  above  alleged,  that  the  same  over- 
sight runs  through  all  these  interferences ;  be  they  with 
commerce,  or  be  they  with  other  things  ?  Is  it  not  that 
in  employing  people  to  achieve  this  or  that  desideratum, 
legislators  have  not  perceived  that  they  were  thereby  pre- 
venting the  achievement  of  some  other  desideratuin)?7^ 
Has  it  not  been  constantly  assumed  that  each  proposed 
good  would,  if  secured,  be  a  pure  good  ;  instead  of  being 
a  good  purchasable  only  by  submission  to  some  evil  that 
would  else  have  been  remedied  ?  And  may  we  not  ration- 
ally believe  thatias  in  trade,  so  in  other  things,  labour 
will  spontaneously  find  out,  better  than  any  government 
can  find  out  for  it,  the  things  on  which  it  may  best  expend 
itself?)  Undoubtedly  we  may.  Rightly  regarded,  the 
two  propositions  are  identical.'?  This  division  into  com- 
mercial and  non-commercial  affairs  is  quite  a  superficial 
one.  All  the  actions  going  on  in  society  come  under  the 
generalization— human  effort  administering  to  human  de- 
sire. Whether  the  administration  be  effected  through  a 
process  of  buying  and  selling,  or  whether  in  any  other 
way,  matters  not  so  far  as  the  general  law  of  it  is  con- 
cerned.    In  all  cases  it  will  be  true  that  the  stronger 


ITS   NEGATIVE   EVILS.  93 

desires  will  get  themselves  satisfied  before  the  weaker 
ones  ;  and  in  all  cases  it  will  be  true  that  to  get  satisfac- 
tion for  the  weaker  ones  before  they  would  naturally  have 
it,  is  to  deny  satisfaction  to  the  stronger  ones. 

%  (To  the  immense  positive  evils  entailed  by  over-legisla- 
tion have  to  be  added  the  equally  great  negative  evils^ 
evils  which,  notwithstanding  their  greatness,  are  scarcely 
at  all  recognized,  even  by  the  far-seeing,  f  It  is  not  simply 
that  the  State  does  those  things  which  it  ought  not  to  do} 
but  that,  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  it  leaves  undone 
those  things  which  it  ought  to  do^  Time  and  human 
activity  being  limited,  it  necessarily  follows  that  legisla- 
tors' sins  of  commission  entail  con*espondinff  sins  of  omis- 
sion. The  injury  is  unavoidably  doubled^  Mischievous 
meddling  involves  disastrous  neglect ;  and  until  statesmen 
are  ubiquitous  and  omnipotent,  must  ever  do  so.  It  is  in 
the  very  nature  of  things  that  an  agency  employed  for 
two  purposes  must  fulfil  both  imperfectly ;  partly  because 
while  fulfilling  the  one  it  cannot  be  fulfilling  the  other,  and 
partly  because  its  adaptation  to  both  ends  implies  incom- 
plete fitness  for  either.  As  has  been  well  said  apropos  of 
this  point — "  A  blade  which  is  designed  both  to  shave  and 
to  carve,  will  certainly  not  shave  so  well  as  a  razor  or 
carve  so  well  as  a  carving-knife.  An  academy  of  painting, 
which  should  also  be  a  bank,  would  in  all  probability 
exhibit  very  bad  pictures  and  discount  very  bad  bills.  A 
gas  company,  which  should  also  be  an  infant-school  society, 
would,  we  apprehend,  light  the  streets  ill,  and  teach  the 
children  ill."* 

And  if  an  institution  undertakes,  not  two  functions, 
but  a  score-^if  a  government,  whose  ofiice  it  is  to  defend 
citizens  against  aggressors,  foreign  and  domestic,  engages 

*  Edirtburgh  Review,  April,  1839. 


94  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

also  to  disseminate  Christianity,  to  administer  charity,  to 
teach  children  their  lessons,  to  adjust  prices  of  food,  to 
inspect  coal-mines,  to  regulate  railways,  to  superintend 
house-building,  to  arrange  cab-fares,  to  look  into  people's 
stink-traps,  to  vaccinate  their  children,  to  send  out  emi- 
grants, to  prescribe  hours  of  labour,  to  examine  lodging- 
houses,  to  test  the  knowledge  of  mercantile  captains,  to 
provide  public  libraries,  to  read  and  authorize  dramas,  to 
inspect  passenger-ships,  to  see  that  small  dwellings  are 
supplied  with  water,  to  regulate  endless  things  from  a 
banker's  issues  down  to  the  boat-fares  on  the  Serpentine — 
is  it  not  manifest  I  that  its  primary  duty  must  be  ill  dis- 
charged in  proportion  to  the  multiplicity  of  affairs  it  busies 
itself  with?^  Is  it  not  manifest  that  its  time  and  energies 
must  be  frittered  away  in  schemes,  and  inquiries,  and 
amendments,  in  proposals,  and  debates,  and  divisions,  to 
the  utter  neglect  of  its  essential  office?  And  does  not  a 
glance  over  the  debates  make  it  manifest  that  this  is  the 
fact?  and  that,  while  parliament  and  public  are  alike  occu- 
pied with  these  chimerical  projects,  these  mischievous 
interferences,  these  Utopian  hopes,  the  one  thing  needful  is 
left  almost  undone  ?  7 

See  here,  then,  the  proximate  cause  of  all  our  legal 
abominations.  We  drop  the  substance  in  our  efforts  to 
catch  shadows.  /  While  our  firesides,  and  clubs,  and  tav- 
erns are  filled  with  talk  about  corn-law  questions,  and 
church  questions,  and  education  questions,  and  sanitary 
questions — all  of  them  raised  by  over-legislation — ^the  jus- 
tice question  gets  scarcely  any  attention ;  and  we  daily 
submit  to  be  oppressed,  cheated,  robbed.  7  This  institution, 
which  should  succour  the  man  who  has  fallen  among 
thieves,  turns  him  over  to  solicitors,  barristei-s,  and  a  legion 
of  law-officers ;  drains  his  purse  for  writs,  briefs,  affida- 
vits, subpoenas,  fees  of  all  kinds  and  expenses  innumera- 
ble; involves  him  in  the  intricacies  of  common  courts. 


THE   STATE   NEGLECTS   ITS   TEUE   WOEK.  95 

chancery  courts,  suits,  counter-suits,  and  appeals ;  and 
often  ruins  where  it  should  aid.  Meanwhile,  meetings  are 
called,  and  leading  articles  written,  and  votes  asked,  and 
societies  formed,  and  agitations  carried  on,  not  to  rectify 
these  gigantic  evils,  but  partly  to  abolish  our  ancestors' 
mischievous  meddlings,  and  partly  to  establish  meddlings 
of  our  own.  Is  it  not  obvious  that  this  fatal  neglect  is  a 
result  of  this  mistaken  officiousness  ?  Suppose  that  exter- 
nal and  internal  protection  had  been  the  sole  recognized 
functions  of  the  legislature.  Is  it  conceivable  that  our 
administration  of  justice  would  have  been  as  corrupt  as 
now  ?  Can  any  one  believe  that  had  parliamentary  elec- 
tions been  habitually  contested  on  questions  of  legal  re- 
form, our  judicial  system  would  still  have  been  what  Sir 
John  Romilly  calls  it — "  a  technical  system  invented  for 
the  creation  of  costs"?  Does  any  one  suppose  that,  if  the 
efficient  defence  of  person  and  property  had  been  the  con- 
stant subject-matter  of  hustings  pledges,  we  should  yet  be 
waylaid  by  a  Chancery  Court  which  has  now  more  than 
two  hundred  millions  of  property  in  its  clutches — which 
keeps  suits  pending  fifty  years,  until  all  the  funds  are  gone 
in  fees — which  swallows  in  costs  two  millions  annually? 
Dare  any  one  assert  that  had  constituencies  been  always 
canvassed  on  principles  of  law-reform  versus  law-conserva- 
tism, Ecclesiastical  Courts  would  have  continued  for  cen- 
turies fattening  on  the  goods  of  widows  and  orphans  ? 
The  questions  are  next  to  absurd. 

■^(A  child  may  see  that  with  the  general  knowledge  peo- 
ple have  of  legal  corruptions  and  the  universal  detestation 
of  legal  atrocities,  an  end  would  long  since  have  been  put 
to  them,  had  the  administration  of  justice  always  been  the 
political  topic)  ^  Had  not  the  public  mind  been  constantly 
preoccupied,  it  could  never  have  been  tolerated  that  a 
man,  neglecting  to  file  an  answer  to  a  bill  in  due  course, 
should  be  imprisoned  fifteen  years  for  contempt  of  court, 


96  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

as  Mr.  James  Taylor  was.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
that  on  the  abolition  of  their  sinecures  the  sworn-clerks 
should  have  been  compensated  by  the  continuance  of  their 
exhorbitant  incomes,  not  only  till  death,  but  for  seven 
years  after,  at  a  total  estimated  cost  of  £700,000.  *^"Were 
the  State  confined  to  its  defensive  and  judicial  functions, 
not  only  the  people  but  legislators  themselves  would  agi- 
tate against  abuses.^  The  sphere  of  activity  and  the 
opportunities  for  distinction  being  narrowed,  all  the 
thought,  and  industry,  and  eloquence  which  members  of 
Parliament  now  expend  on  countless  impracticable  schemes 
and  countless  artificial  grievances,  would  be  expended  in 
rendering  justice  pure,  certain,  prompt,  and  cheap.  The 
complicated  follies  of  our  legal  verbiage,  which  the  unini- 
tiated cannot  understand,  and  which  the  initiated  interpret 
in  various  senses,  would  be  quickly  put  an  end  to.  We 
should  no  longer  constantly  hear  of  Acts  of  Parliament  so 
bunglingly  drawn  up  that  it  requires  half  a  dozen  actions 
and  judges'  decisions  under  them,  before  even  lawyers  can 
say  how  they  apply.  There  would  be  no  such  stupidly- 
designed  measures  as  the  Railway  Winding-up  Act ;  which 
though  passed  in  1846  to  close  the  accounts  of  the  bubble 
schemes  of  the  mania,  leaves  them  still  unsettled  in  1854 
— which,  even  with  funds  in  hand,  withholds  payment 
from  creditors  whose  claims  have  been  years  since 
admitted.  Lawyers  would  no  longer  be  sufi*ered  to  main- 
tain and  to  complicate  the  present  absurd  system  of  land 
titles ;  which,  besides  the  litigation  and  ruin  it  perpetually 
causes,  lowers  the  value  of  estates,  prevents  the  ready 
application  of  capital  to  them,  checks  the  development  of 
agriculture,  and  so,  seriously  hinders  the  improvement  of 
the  peasantry  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  In  short, 
the  follies,  terrors,  and  abominations  which  now  environ 
law  would  cease ;  and  that  which  men  now  shrink  from 
as  an  enemy  they  would  come  to  regard  as  what  it  pur- 
ports to  be — a  friend.  ^ 


LAW   THE   ENEMY   OF   THE   CITIZEN.  97 

How  vast  then  is  the  negative  evil,  which,  in  addition 
to  the  positive  evils  before  enumerated,  this  meddling 
policy  entails  on  us !  /  How  many  are  the  grievances  men 
bear,  from  which  they  would  otherwise  be  free))  Who  is 
there  that  has  not  submitted  to  injuries  rather  than  run  the 
risk  of  heavy  law-costs  ?  Who  is  there  that  has  not  aban- 
doned just  claims  rather  than  "  throw  good  money  after 
bad  "  ?  Who  is  there  that  has  not  paid  unjust  demands 
rather  than  withstand  the  threat  of  an  action  ?  Who  is 
there  that  cannot  point  to  property  that  has  been  alienated 
from  his  family  from  lack  of  funds,  or  courage  to  fight  for 
it  ?  Who  is  there  that  has  not  a  relation  ruined  by  a  law- 
suit ?  Who  is  there  that  does  not  know  a  lawyer  who  has 
grown  rich  on  the  hard  earnings  of  the  needy  and  the 
savings  of  the  oppressed  ?  Who  is  there  that  cannot 
name  a  once  wealthy  man  who  has  been  brought  by  legal 
iniquities  to  the  workhouse  or  the  lunatic  asylum  ?  Who 
is  there  that  has  not,  within  his  own  personal  knowledge, 
evidence  of  the  great  extent  to  which  the  badness  of  our 
judicial  system  vitiates  our  whole  social  life:  renders 
almost  every  family  poorer  than  it  would  otherwise  be ; 
hampers  almost  every  business  transaction ;  inflicts  daily 
anxieties  on  every  trader  ?  And  all  this  continual  loss 
of  property,  time,  temper,  comfort,  men  quietly  submit 
to  from  being  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  impracticable 
schemes  which  eventually  bring  upon  them  other  losses  of 
kindred  nature. 

Nay,  the  case  is  even  worse,  ttt  is  distinctly  proveable 
that  many  of  these  evils,  about  which  so  great  an  outcry 
is  raised,  and  to  cure  which  special  Acts  of  Parliament  are 
so  loudly  invoked,  are  themselves  produced  by  the  dis- 
graceful administration  of  our  judicial  system.N  For  ex- 
ample, it  is  well  known  that  the  horrors  out  of  which  our 
sanitary  agitators  make  political  capital,  are  found  in  theii' 
greatest  intensity  on  properties  that  have  been  for  a  genera- 
5 


98  OVER-LEGISLATION. 

tion  in  Chancery — are  distinctly  traceable  to  the  ruin  thus 
brought  about ;  and  would  never  have  existed  but  for  the 
infamous  corruptions  of  law.  /  Again,  it  has  been  clearly 
shown  that  the  long-drawn  miseries  of  Ireland,  which  have 
been  the  subject  of  endless  legislation — of  Coercion  Bills, 
of  Poor  Laws,  of  Rates  in  Aid,  of  Drainage  Bills,  of  tinker- 
ings  without  number — ^have  been  mainly  produced  by 
inequitablel  and-tenure  and  the  complicated  system  of 
entail :  a  system  which  wrought  such  involvements  as  to 
prevent  sales ;  which  practically  negatived  all  improve- 
ment;  which  brought  landlords  to  the  workhouse;  and 
which  required  an  Incumbered  Estates  Act  to  cut  its 
gordian  knots  and  render  the  proper  cultivation  of  the 
soil  possible. 

L  /Judicial  negligence,  too,  is  the  main  cause  of  railway 
accidents.  )  If  the  State  would  duly  fulfil  its  true  function, 
by  giving  passengers  an  easy  remedy  for  breach  of  con- 
tract when  trains  are  behind  time,  it  would  do  more  to 
prevent  accidents  than  can  be  done  by  the  minutest  in- 
spection, or  the  most  cunningly-devised  regulations ;  for 
it  is  notorious  that  the  majority  of  accidents  are  primarily 
caused  by  irregularity^^  In  the  case  of  bad  house-buirUng, 
also,  it  is  obvious  that  a  cheap,  rigorous,  and  certain 
administration  of  justice,  would  make  Building  Acts  need- 
less. For  is  not  the  man  who  erects  a  house  of  bad 
materials  ill  put  together,  and,  concealing  these  with 
papering  and  plaster,  sells  it  as  a  substantial  dwelling, 
guilty  of  fraud  ?  And  should  not  the  law  recognize  thjs^ 
fraud  as  it  does  in  the  analogous  case  of  an  unsound  horse  ? 
And  if  the  legal  remedy  were  easy,  prompt,  and  sure, 
would  builders  be  such  fools  as  to  continue  transgressing  ? 
So  is  it  in  numerous  other  cases :  the  evils  which  men 
perpetually  call  upon  the  State  to  (cure  by  superintend- 
ence, themselves  arise  from  the  noii-perfoi*mance  of  its 
original  duty. 


0 


CONSEQUENCES   OF  NEGLECTING  JUSTICE.  99 

/C(  Observe  then  how  this  vicious  policy  complicates  it- 
sen — ^how  it  acts  and  reacts,  and  rpjiitTplies  its  injuries^ 
Not  only  does  meddling  legislation  fail  to  cure  the  evils  it 
aims  at ;  not  only  does  it  make  many  evils  worse ;  not 
only  does  it  create  new  evils  greater  than  the^oTJ ;  but 
while  doing  this  it  entails  on  men"^  the  terrible  oppres- 
sions, robberies,  cruelties,  ruin,  that  flow  from  the  non- 
administration  of  justice :  and  not  only  to  the  positive 
evils  does  it  add  thig^Tast  negative  one,  but  this  again,  by 
fostering  many  social  abuses  that  would  not  else  exist, 
furnishes  occasions  for  more  meddlings  which  again  act 
and  react  in  the  same  way.  And  thus  as  ever,  "  things 
bad  begun  make  strong  themselves  by  ill."y 

(^  ^After  assigning  reasons  thus  fundamental,  for  condemn- 
ing all  State-action  save  that  which  universal  experience 
has  proved  to  be  absolutely  needful^  it  would  seem  super- 
fluous to  assign  subordinate  ones.^  Were  it  called  for,  we 
might,  taking  for  text  Mr.  Lindsay's  work  on  "  Naviga- 
tion and  Mercantile  Marine  Law,'Ysay  much  upon  the 
complexity  to  which  this  process  of  adding  regulation  to 
regulation — each  necessitated  by  foregoing  ones — ulti- 
mately leads :  a  complexity  which,  by  the  misunderstand- 
ings, delays,  and  disputes  it  entails,  greatly  hampers  our 
social  life.^  Something,  too,  might   be   added  upon  the 

Tperturbing  effects  of  that  "  gross  delusion,"  as  M.  Guizot 
calls  it,  "  a  belief  in  the  sovereign  power  of  political  ma- 
chinery ''Va  delusion  to  which  he  partly  ascribes,  and, 
we  believe,  rightly  so,  the  late  revolution  in  France ;  and 

,  a  delusion  which  is  fostered  by  every  new  interference. 
But,  passing  over  these,  we  would  dwell  for  a  short  space 
uponfthe  national  enervation  which  this  State-superin- 
tendence produces-4an  evil  which,  though  secondary,  is, 
so  far  from  being  subordinate,  perhaps  greater  than  any 
other.    ^ 


100  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

The  enthusiastic  philanthropist,  urgent  for  some  act  of 
parliament  to  remedy  this  evil  or  secure  the  other  good, 
thinks  it  a  very  trivial  and  far-fetched  objection  that  the 
people  will  be  morally  injured  by  doing  things  for  them 
instead  of  leaving  them  to  do  things  themselves.  He 
vividly  realizes  the  benefit  he  hopes  to  get  achieved,  which 
is  a  positive  and  readily  imaginable  thing :  he  does  not 
realize  the  diffused,  invisible,  and  slowly-accumulating 
effect  wrought  on  the  popular  mind,  and  so  does  not 
believe  in  it ;  or,  if  he  admits  it,  thinks  it  beneath  con- 
sideration. Would  he  but  remember,  however,  that  all 
national  character  is  gradually  produced  by  the  daily 
action  of  circumstances,  of  which  each  day's  result  seems 
so  insignificant  as  not  to  be  worth  mentioning,  he  would 
see  that  what  is  trifling  when  viewed  in  its  increments, 
may  be  formidable  when  viewed  in  its  sum  total.  Or  if 
he  would  go  into  the  nursery,  and  watch  how  repeated 
actions — each  of  them  apparently  unimportant,  create,  in 
the  end,  a  habit  which  will  affect  the  whole  future  life ; 
he  would  be  reminded  that,  every  influence  brought  to  bear 
on  human  nature  tells,  and  if  continued,  tells  seriously. 
The  thoughtless  mother  who  hourly  yields  to  the  requests 
— "Mamma,  tie  my  pinafore,"  "Mamma,  button  my  shoe," 
and  the  like,  cannot  be  persuaded  that  each  of  these  con- 
cessions is  detrimental  a  but  the  wiser  spectator  sees  that 
if  this  policy  be  long  pursued,  and  be  extended  to  other 
things,  it  will  end  in  hopeless  dependence.)  The  teacher 
of  the  old  school  who  showed  his  pupil  the  way  out  of 
every  difficulty,  did  not  perceive  that  he  was  generating 
an  attitude  of  mind  greatly  militating  against  success  in 
life.  The  modern  instructor,  however,  induces  his  pupil 
to  solve  his  difficulties  himself;  believes  that  in  so  doing 
he  is  preparing  him  to  meet  the  difficulties  which,  when 
he  goes  into  the  world,  there  will  be  no  one  to  help  him 
through ;  and  finds  confirmation  for  this  belief  in  the  fact 


THE   STATE  DISCOURAGES   SELF-HELP.  1,01 

that  a  great  proportion  of  the  most  successful  men  are 
self-made. 

Well,  is  it  not  obvious  that  this  relationship  between 
discipline  and  success  holds  good  nationally?  Are  not 
nations  made  of  men;  and  are  not  men  subject  to  the  same 
laws  of  modification  in  their  adult  as  in  their  early  years? 
Is  it  not  true  of  the  drunkard,  that  each  carouse  adds  a 
thread  to  his  bonds  ?  of  the  trader,  that  each  acquisition 
strengthens  the  wish  for  acquisitions  ?  of  the  pauper,  that 
the  more  you  assist  him  the  more  he  wants  ?  of  the  busy 
man,  that  the  more  he  has  to  do  the  more  he  can  do  ? 

tAnd  does  it  not  follow  that  if  every  individual  is  subject 
to  this  process  of  adaptation  to  conditions,  a  whole  nation 
must  be  so — that  just  in  proportion  as  its  members  are 
little  helped  by  extraneous  power  they  will  become  self- 
helping,  and  in  proportion  as  they  are  much  helped  they 
will  become  helpless  y/Whsit  folly  is  it  to  ignore  these 
results  because  they  are  not  direct,  and  not  immediately 
visible.  Though  slowly  wrought  out,  they  are  inevitable. 
We  can  no  more  elude  the  laws  of  human  development 
than  we  can  elude  the  law  of  gravitation :  and  so  long  as 
they  hold  true  must  these  effects  occur. 
I-  If  we  are  asked  in  what  special  directions  this  alleged 
helplessness,  entailed  by  much  State-superintendence^ 
shows  itself;  we  reply  that  it  is  seen  in  a  Retardation  of 
all  social  growths  requiring  self-confidence  in  the  people) 
— in  a  timidity  that  fears  all  difficulties  not  before  encoun- 
tered— in  ^thoughtless  contentment  with  things  as  they 
arep  Let  any  one,  after  duly  watching  the  rapid  evolu- 
tion going  on  in  England,  where  men  have  been  compara- 
tively little  helped  by  governments — or  better  still,  after 
contemplating  the  unparalleled  progress  of  the  United 
States,  which  is  peopled  by  self-made  men,  and  the  recent 
descendants  of  self-made  men ; — let  such  an  one,  we  say, 
go  on  to  the  Continent,  and  consider  the  relatively  slow 


102  OVER-LEGISLATION . 

advance  which  things  are  there  making;  and  the  still 
slower  advance  they  would  make  but  for  English  enter- 
prised  Let  him  go  to  Holland,  and  see  that  though  the 
Dutch  early  showed  themselves  good  mechanics,  and  have 
had  abundant  practice  in  hydraulics,  Amsterdam  has  been 
without  any  due  supply  of  water  until  now  that  works 
are  being  established  by  an  English  company.  Let  him 
go  to  Berlin,  and  there  be  told  that,  to  give  that  city  a 
water-supply  such  as  London  has  had  for  generations,  the 
project  of  an  English  firm  is  about  to  be  executed  by 
English  capital,  under  English  superintendence.  Let  him 
go  to  Paris,  where  he  will  find  a  similar  lack,  and  a  like 
remedy  now  under  consideration.  Let  him  go  to  Vienna, 
and  learn  that  it,  in  common  with  other  continental  cities, 
is  lighted  by  an  English  gas-company.  Let  him  go  on 
the  Khone,  on  the  Loire,  on  the  Danube,  and  discover 
that  Englishmen  established  steam  navigation  on  those 
rivers.  Let  him  inquire  concerning  the  railways  in  Italy, 
Spain,  France,  Sweden,  Denmark,  how  many  of  them  are 
English  projects,  how  many  have  been  largely  helped  by 
English  capital,  how  many  have  been  executed  by  Eng- 
lish contractors,  how  many  have  had  English  engineers. 
Let  him  discover,  too,  as  he  will,  that  where  railways  have 
been  government-made,  as  in  Russia,  the  energy,  the  per- 
severance, and  the  practical  talent  developed  in  England 
and  the  United  States  have  been  called  in  to  aid. 

And  then  if  these  illustrations  of  the  progressiveness 
of  a  self-dependent  race,  and  the  torpidity  of  paternally- 
governed  ones,  do  not  suffice  him,  he  may  read  Mr.  Laing's 
successive  volumes  of  European  travel,  and  there  study 
the  contrast  in  detail.  What,  now,  is  the  cause  of  this 
contrast  ?  C-  In  the  order  of  nature,  a  capacity  for  self-help 
must  in  every  case  have  been  brought  into  existence  by 
the  practice  of  self-help ;  and,  other  things  equal,  a  lack 
of  this  capacity  must  in  every  case  have  arisen  from  the 


AEEEST  OF  NATIONAL   GROWTH.  103 

lack  of  demand  for  it.  Do  not  these  two  antecedents  and 
their  two  consequents  a^ree  with  the  facts  as  presented  in 
England  and  Europe  ?  Were  not  the  inhabitants  of  the 
two,  some  centuries  ago,  much  upon  a  par  in  point  of  en- 
terprise? Were  not  the  English  even  behind,  in  their 
manufactui-es,  in  their  colonization,  and  in  their  com- 
merce ?  Has  not  the  immense  relative  change  the  English 
have  undergone  in  this  respect,  been  coincident  with  the 
great  relative  self-dependence  they  have  been  since  habitu- 
ated to?  And  is  not  this  change  proximately  ascribable  to 
this  habitual  self-dependence  ?  Whoever  doubts  it,  is  asked 
to  assign  a  more  probable  cause.  ^  Whoever  admits  it,  must 
admit  that  the  enervation  of  a  people  by  perpetual  State- 
aids  is  not  a  trifling  consideration,  but  the  most  weighty 
consideration.  A  general  arrest  of  national  growth  he  will 
see  to  be  an  evil  greater  than  any  special  benefits  can  com- 
pensate for.  And,  indeed,  when,  after  contemplating  this 
great  fact,  the  overspreading  of  the  Earth  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  he  remarks  the  absence  of  any  parallel  phenome- 
non exhibited  by  a  continental  race — when  he  reflects  how 
this  difi*erence  must  depend  chiefly  on  difference  of  charac- 
ter, and  how  such  difference  of  character  has  been  mainly 
produced  by  difference  of  discipline ;  he  will  perceive  that 
the  policy  pursued  in  this  matter  may  have  a  large  share 
in  determining  a  nation's  ultimate  fate. 

We  are  not  sanguine,  however,  that  argument  will 
change  the  convictions  of  those  who  put  their  trust  in 
legislation.  With  men  of  a  certain  order  of  thought  the 
foregoing  reasons  will  have  weight.  With  men  of  another 
order  of  thought  they  will  have  little  or  none :  nor  would 
any  accumulation  of  such  reasons  affect  them.  The  truth 
that  experience  teaches,  has  its  limits.  The  experiences 
that  will  teach,  must  be  experiences  that  can  be  appreci- 
ated ;  and  experiences  exceeding  a  certain  degree  of  com- 


104  OVEE-LEGISLATION, 

plexity  become  inappreciable  to  the  majority.  It  is  thus 
with  most  social  phenomena.  If  we  remember  that  for 
these  two  thousand  years  and  more,  mankind  have  been 
making  regulations  for  commerce,  which  have  all  along 
been  strangling  some  trades,  and  killing  others  with  kind- 
ness ;  and  that  though  the  proofs  of  this  have  been  con- 
stantly before  their  eyes,  they  have  only  just  discovered 
that  they  have  been  uniformly  doing  mischief; — if  we 
remember  that  even  now  only  a  small  portion  of  them  see 
this;  we  are  taught  that  perpetually-repeated  and  ever- 
accumulating  experiences  will  fail  to  teach,  until  there 
exist  the  mental  conditions  required  for  the  assimilation  of 
them.  Nay,  when  they  are  assimilated,  it  is  very  imper- 
fectly. The  truth  they  teach  is  only  half  understood, 
even  by  those  supposed  to  understand  it  best.  For  exam- 
ple, Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  one  of  his  last  speeches,  after  de- 
scribing the  immensely-increased  consumption  consequent 
on  free  trade,  goes  on  to  say : 

"  If,  then,  you  can  only  continue  that  consumption — if, 
hy  your  legislation^  under  the  favour  of  Providence,  you 
can  maintain  the  demand  for  labour  and  make  your  trade 
and  manufactures  prosperous,  you  are  not  only  increasing 
the  sum  of  human  happiness,  but  are  giving  the  agricul- 
turists of  this  country  the  best  chance  of  that  increased 
demand  which  must  contribute  to  their  welfare." — Times, 
Feb.  22,  1850. 

Thus  the  prosperity  really  due  to  the  abandonment  of 
all  legislation,  is  ascribed  to  a  particular  kind  of  legisla- 
tion. "Tow  can  maintain  the  demand,"  he  says;  "yow 
can  make  trade  and  manufactures  prosperous ;"  whereas, 
the  facts  he  quotes  prove  that  they  can  do  this  only  by 
doing  nothing.  The  essential  truth  of  the  matter — that 
law  had  been  doing  immense  harm,  and  that  this  prosperi- 
ty resulted  not  from  law,  but  from  the  absence  of  laAV — is 
missed;  and  his   faith  in  legislation  in   general,  which 


BLIND  WOESHIP   OF   GOVEENMENT.  105 

should,  by  this  experience,  have  been  greatly  shaken, 
seemingly  remains  as  strong  as  ever.  Here,  again,  is  the 
House  of  Lords,  apparently  not  yet  believing  in  the  rela- 
tionship of  supply  and  demand,  adopting  within  these  few 
weeks,  the  standing  order — 

"  That  before  the  first  reading  of  any  bill  for  making 
any  work  in  the  construction  of  which  compulsory  power 
is  sought  to  take  thirty  houses  or  more  inhabited  by  the 
labouring  classes  in  any  one  parish  or  place,  the  promo- 
ters be  required  to  deposit  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the 
parliaments  a  statement  of  the  number,  description,  and 
situation  of  the  said  houses,  the  number  (so  far  as  they 
can  be  estimated)  of  persons  to  be  displaced,  and  xohether 
any  and  what  provision  is  made  in  the  bill  for  remedying 
the  inconvenience  likely  to  arise  from,  such  displace- 
m.ents.^'* 

If,  then,  in  the  comparatively  simple  relationships  of 
trade,  the  teachings  of  experience  remain  for  so  many  ages 
unperceived,  and  are  so  imperfectly  apprehended  when 
they  are  perceived,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  hoped  that  where 
all  social  phenomena — moral,  intellectual,  and  physical — 
are  involved,  any  due  appreciation  of  the  truths  display- 
ed will  presently  take  place.  The  facts  cannot  yet  get 
recognized  as  facts.  As  the  alchemist  attributed  his  suc- 
cessive disappointments  to  some  disproportion  in  the  in- 
gredients, some  impurity,  or  some  too  great  temperature, 
and  never  to  the  futility  of  his  process,  or  the  impossibili- 
ty of  his  aim ;  so,  every  failure  cited  to  prove  the  impo- 
tence of  State-regulations  the  law-worshipper  explains 
away  as  being  caused  by  this  trifling  oversight,  or  that 
little  mistake :  all  which  oversights  and  mistakes  he  assures 
you  will  in  future  be  avoided.  Eluding  the  facts  as  he 
does  after  this  fashion,  volley  after  volley  of  them  produce 
no  effect. 
CIndeed,  this  faith  in  governments  is  in  a  certain  sense 
5* 


106  OVEE-LEGISLATION. 

organic ;  and  can  diminish  only  by  being  outgrown.  A 
subtle  form  of  fetishism,  it  is  as  natural ;  to  the  present 
phase  of  human  evolution  as  its  grosser  prototype  was 
to  an  earlier  phase.  From  the  time  when  rulers  were 
thought  demi-gods,  there  has  been  a  gradual  decline  in 
men's  estimates  of  their  power.  This  decline  is  still  in 
progress,  and  has  still  far  to  go.  Doubtless,  every  incre- 
ment of  evidence  furthers  it  in  some  degree,  though  not  to 
the  degree  that  at  first  appears.  Only  in  so  far  as  it  modi- 
fies character  does  it  produce  a  permanent  effect.  For 
while  the  mental  type  remains  the  same,  the  removal  of 
a  special  error  is  inevitably  followed  by  the  growth  of 
other  errors  of  the  same  genus.  ^11  superstitions  die  hard; 
and  we  fear  that  this  belief  in  government-omnipotence 
will  form  no  exception?)  y 


tv 


III. 
THE  MOEALS  OF  TKADE. 


"Y'TT^E  are  not  about  to  repeat,  under  tlie  above  title, 
VV  tbe often-told  tale  of  adulterations:  albeit,  were  it 
our  object  to  deal  with  this  familiar  topic,  there  are  not 
wanting  fresh  materials.  It  is  rather  the  less-observed 
and  less-known  dishonesties  of  trade,  to  which  we  would 
here  draw  attention.  The  same  lack  of  conscientiousness 
which  shows  itself  in  the  mixing  of  starch  with  cocoa,  in 
the  dilution  of  butter  with  lard,  in  the  colouring  of  con- 
fectionary with  chromate  of  lead  and  arsenite  of  copper, 
must  of  course  come  out  in  more  concealed  forms ;  and 
these  are  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  numerous  and  as  mis- 
chievous. 

It  is  not  true,  as  many  suppose,  that  only  the  lower 
classes  of  the  commercial  world  are  guilty  of  fraudulent 
dealings ;  those  above  them  are  to  a  great  extent  blame- 
worthy. On  the  average,  men  who  deal  in  bales  and  tons 
differ  but  little  in  morality  from  men  who  deal  in  yards 
and  pounds.  VJllicit  practices,  of  every  form  and  shade, 
from  venial  deception  up  to  all  but  direct  theft,  may  be 
brought  home  to  the  higher  grades  of  our  commercial 
worldriTricks  innumerable,  lies  acted  or  uttered,  elabor- 
ately-revised frauds,  are  prevalent — many  of  them  estab- 


108  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

lished  as  "  customs  of  the  trade ;"  nay,  not  only  estab- 
lished but  defended. 3 

Passing  over,  then,  the  much-reprobated  shopkeepers, 
of  whose  delinquencies  most  people  know  something,  let 
us  turn  our  attention  to  the  delinquencies  of  the  classes 
above  them  in  the  mercantile  scale. 

The  business  of  wholesale  houses — in  the  clothing- 
trades  at  least — is  chiefly  managed  by  a  class  of  men 
called  "buyers."  Each  wholesale  establishment  is  usually 
divided  into  several  departments;  and  at  the  head  of  each 
of  these  departments  is  placed  one  of  these  functionaries. 
A  buyer  is  a  partially-independent  sub-trader.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  year  he  is  debited  with  a  certain  share  of 
the  capital  of  his  employers.  With  this  capital  he  trades. 
From  the  makers  he  orders  for  his  department  such  goods 
as  he  thinks  will  find  a  market ;  and  for  the  goods  thus 
bought  he  obtains  as  large  a  sale  as  he  can  among  the 
retailers  of  his  connection.  The  accounts  show  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  what  profit  has  been  made  on  the  capital  over 
which  he  has  command ;  and  according  to  the  result,  his 
engagement  is  continued,  perhaps  at  an  increased  salary, 
or  he  is  discharged. 

Under  such  circumstances,  bribery  would  hardly  be 
expected.  Yet  we  learn,  on  unquesli^onable  authority, 
that  buyers  habitually  bribe  and  are  bribed.  Giving  pres- 
ents, as  a  means  of  obtaining  custom,  is  an  established  and 
understood  practice  between  them  and  all  with  whom 
they  have  dealings.  Their  connection  among  retailers 
they  extend  by  treating  and  favours  ;  and  they  are  them- 
selves influenced  in  their  purchases  by  like  means.  It 
might  be  presumed  that  self-interest  would  in  both  cases 
negative  this.  But  apparently,  no  very  obvious  sacrifice 
results  from  yielding  to  such  influences.  When,  as  usually 
happens,  there  are  many  manufacturers  producing  articles 


BRIBERY   EST   THE   CLOTHING   TRADES.  109 

of  like  goodness  at  the  same  prices,  or  many  buyers  be- 
tween whose  commodities  and  whose  terms  there  is  little 
room  for  choice,  there  exists  no  motive  to  purchase  of 
one  rather  than  another;  and  then,  the  temptation  to 
take  some  immediate  bonus  turns  the  scale.  Whatever 
b6  the  cause,  however,  the  fact  is  testified  to  us  alike  in 
London  and  the  provinces.  By  manufacturers,  buyers  are 
sumptuously  entertained  for  days  together,  and  are  plied 
throughout  the  year  with  hampers  of  game,  turkeys, 
dozens  of  wine,  etc. ;  nay,  they  receive  actual  money- 
bribes  :  sometimes,  as  we  hear  from  a  manufacturer,  in 
the  shape  of  bank-notes ;  but  more  commonly  in  the  shape 
of  discounts  on  the  amounts  of  their  purchases. 

The  extreme  prevalence — universality  we  might  say — 
of  this  system,  is  proved  by  the  evidence  of  one  who,  dis- 
gusted as  he  is,  finds  himself  inextricably  entangled  in  it. 
He  confessed  to  us  that  all  his  transactions  were  thus 
tainted.  "  Each  of  the.  buyers  with  whom  I  deal,"  he 
said,  "  expects  an  occasional  bonus  in  one  form  or  other. 
Some  require  the  bribe  to  be  wrapped  up  ;  and  some  take 
it  without  disguise.  To  an  offer  of  money,  such  an  one 
replies — '  Oh,  I  don't  like  that  sort  of  thing  ;'  but  never- 
theless, he  does  not  object  to  money's-worth.  While  my 
friend  So-and-so,  who  promises  to  bring  me  a  large  trade 
this  season,  will,  I  very  well  know,  look  for  one  per  cent, 
discount  in  cash.  The  thing  is  not  to  be  avoided.  I  could 
name  sundry  buyers  who  look  askance  at  me,  and  never 
will  inspect  my  goods ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  about  the 
cause — I  have  not  bought  their  patronage."  And  then  our 
informant  appealed  to  another  of  the  trade,  who  agreed  in 
the  assertion  that  in  London,  their  business  could  not  be 
done  on  any  other  terms.  To  such  an  extent  is  the  sys- 
tem carried,  and  so  greedy  of  perquisites  do  some  of  these 
buyers  become,  as  to  absorb  a  great  part  of  the  profits ; 
and  to  make  it  a  question  whether  it  is  worth  while  to 


110  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

continue  the  connection.  And  then,  as  above  hinted,  there 
comes  a  like  history  of  transactions  between  buyers  and 
retailers — the  bribed  being  now  the  briber.  One  of  those 
above  referred  to  as  habitually  expecting  douceurs,  said 
to  the  giver  of  them,  whose  testimony  we  have  just  re- 
peated— "  I've  spent  pounds  and  pounds  over (naming 

a  large  tailor),  and  now  I  think  I  have  gained  him  over." 
To  which  confession  this  buyer  added  the  complaint,  that 
his  house  did  not  make  him  any  allowance  for  sums  thus 
disbursed. 

Under  the  buyer,  who  has  absolute  control  of  his  own 
department  in  a  wholesale  house,  come  a  number  of  assist- 
ants, who  transact  the  business  with  retail  traders:  much 
as  retail  traders'  assistants  transact  the  business  with  the 
general  public.  These  higher-class  assistants,  working 
under  the  same  pressure  as  the  lower,  are  similarly  un- 
scrupulous. Liable  to  prompt  dismissal  as  they  are  for 
non-success  in  selling ;  gaining  higher  positions  as  they  do 
in  proportion  to  the  quantities  of  goods  they  dispose  of  at 
profitable  rates  ;  and  finding  that  no  objections  are  made 
to  any  dishonest  artifices  they  use,  but  rather  that  they  are 
applauded  for  them  ;  these  young  men  display  a  scarcely 
credible  demoralization.  As  we  learn  from  those  who 
have  been  of  them|j:heir  duplicity  is  unceasing — they 
speak  almost  continuous  falsehood ;  and  their  tricks  range 
from  the  simplest  to  the  most  MachiavellianjJ 

Take  a  few  samples.  When  dealing  with  a  retailer,  it 
is  an  habitual  practice  to  bear  in  mind  the  character  of 
his  business ;  and  to  delude  him  respecting  articles  of 
which  he  has  the  least  experience.  If  his  shop  is  in  a 
neighbourhood  where  the  sales  are  chiefly  of  inferior  goods 
(a  fact  ascertained  from  the  traveller),  it  is  inferred  that, 
having  a  comparatively  small  demand  for  superior  goods, 
he  is  a  bad  judge  of  them ;  and  advantage  is  taken  of  his 
ignorance.     Again,  it  is  usual  purposely  to  present  sam- 


CHEATS   IN   SELLINO  CLOTH.  Ill 

pies  of  cloths,  silks,  etc.,  in  such  order  as  to  disqualify  the 
perceptions.  As  when  tasting  different  foods  or  wines, 
the  palate  is  disabled  by  something  strongly  flavoured, 
from  appreciating  the  more  delicate  flavour  of  another 
thing  afterwards  taken;  so  with  the  other  organs  of  sense, 
a  temporary  disability  follows  an  excessive  stimulation. 
This  holds  not  only  with  the  eyes  in  judging  of  colours, 
but  also,  as  we  are  told  by  one  who  has  been  in  the  trade, 
it  holds  with  the  fingers  in  judging  of  textures ;  and  cun- 
ning salesmen  are  in  the  habit  of  thus  partially  paralyzing 
the  customers'  perceptions,  and  then  selling  second-rate 
articles  as  first-rate  ones.  Another  common  manoeuvre  is 
that  of  raising  a  false  belief  of  cheapness.  Suppose  a  tai- 
lor is  laying  in  a  stock  of  broad  cloths.  He  is  offered  a 
bargain.  Three  pieces  are  put  before  him — two  of  good 
quality,  at,  perhaj^s,  14s.  per  yard;  and  one  of  much  in- 
ferior quality,  at  8s.  per  yard.  These  pieces  have  been 
purposely  a  little  tumbled  and  creased,  to  give  an  appar- 
ent reason  for  a  pretended  sacrifice  upon  them.  And  the 
tailor  is  then  told  that  he  may  have  these  nominally- 
damaged  cloths  as  "  a  job  lot,"  at  12s.  per  yard.  Misled 
by  the  appearances  into  a  belief  of  the  professed  sacri- 
fice ;  impressed,  moreover,  by  the  fact  that  two  of  the 
pieces  are  really  worth  considerably  more  than  the  price 
asked ;  and  not  sufficiently  bearing  in  mind  that  the  great 
inferiority  of  the  third  just  balances  this ;  the  tailor  proba- 
bly buys :  and  he  goes  away  with  the  comfortable  convic- 
tion that  he  has  made  a  specially-advantageous  purchase, 
when  he  has  really  paid  the  full  price  for  every  yard.  A 
still  more  subtle  trick  has  been  described  to  us  by  one 
who  himself  made  use  of  it,  when  engaged  in  one  of  these 
wholesale-house — a  trick  so  successful  that  he  was  often 
sent  for  to  sell  to  customers  who  could  be  induced  to  buy 
by  none  other  of  the  assistants,  and  who  ever  afterwards 
would  buy  only  of  him.     His  policy  was  to  seem  extremely 


112  THE  MOEALS  OF  TRADE. 

simple  and  honest,  and  during  the  first  few  purchases  to 
exhibit  his  honesty  by  pointing  out  defects  in  the  things 
he  was  selling ;  and  then,  having  gained  the  customer's 
confidence,  he  proceeded  to  pass  ofi"  upon  him  inferior 
goods  at  superior  prices. 

These  are  a  few  out  of  the  various  manoeuvres  in  con- 
stant practice.  Of  course  there  is  a  running  accompani- 
ment of  falsehoods,  uttered  as  well  as  acted.  It  is  ex- 
pected of  the  assistant  that  he  will  say  whatever  is  needed 
to  effect  a  sale.  "  Any  fool  can  sell  what  is  wanted,"  said 
a  master  in  reproaching  a  shopman  for  not  having  per- 
suaded a  customer  to  buy  something  quite  unlike  that 
which  he  asked  for.  And  the  unscrupulous  mendacity 
thus  required  by  employers,  and  encouraged  by  example, 
grows  to  a  height  of  depravity  that  has  been  described  to 
us  in  words  too  strong  to  be  repeated.  Our  informant 
was  obliged  to  relinquish  his  position  in  one  of  these 
establishments,  because  he  could  not  lower  himself  to  the 
required  depth  of  degradation.  "  You  don't  lie  as  though 
you  believe  what  you  say,"  observed  one  of  his  fellow- 
assistants.     And  this  was  uttered  as  a  reproach ! 

I  As  those  subordinates  who  have  fewest  qualms  of  con- 
science are  those  who  succeed  the  best,  are  soonest  pro- 
moted to  more  remunerative  posts,  and  have  therefore  the 
greatest  chances  of  establishing  businesses  of  their  ownjj 
it  may  be  inferred  that  the  morality  of  the  heads  of  these 
establishments,  is  much  on  a  par  with  that  of  their  em- 
ploybs.  The  habitual  mal-practices  of  wholesale-houses, 
confirm  this  inference.  Not  only,  as  we  have  just  seen, 
are  assistants  under  a  pressure  impelling  them  to  deceive 
purchasei-s  respecting  the  qualities  of  the  goods  they  buy, 
but  purchasers  are  also  deceived  in  respect  to  the  quanti- 
ties ;  and  that,  not  by  an  occasional  unauthorized  trick, 
but  by  an  organized  system,  for  which  the  firm  itself  is 
responsible.     The  general,  and  indeed  almost  universal 


CHEATING   IN   MEASUEEMENT.  113 

practice,  is,  to  make  up  goods,  or  to  have  them  made  up, 
in  lengths  that  are  shorter  than  they  profess  to  be.  A 
piece  of  calico  nominally  thirty-six  yards  long,  never  meas- 
ures more  than  thirty-one  yards — is  understood  through- 
out the  trade  to  measure  only  this.  And  the  long-accumu- 
lating delinquencies  which  this  custom  indicates — the  suc- 
cessive diminutions  of  length,  each  introduced  by  some 
adept  in  dishonesty,  and  then  imitated  by  his  competitors 
— are  now  being  daily  carried  to  a  still  greater  extent, 
wherever  they  are  not  likely  to  be  immediately  detected. 
Articles  that  are  sold  in  small  bundles,  knots,  packets,  or 
such  forms  as  negative  measurement  at  the  time  of  sale, 
are  habitually  deficient  in  quantity.  Silk-laces  called  six 
quarters,  or  fifty-four  inches,  really  measure  four  quarters, 
or  thirty-six  inches.  Tapes  were  originally  sold  in  grosses 
containing  twelve  knots  of  twelve  yards  each ;  but  these 
twelve-yard  knots  are  now  cut  of  all  lengths,  from  eight 
yards  down  to  five  yards,  and  even  less — ^the  usual  length 
being  six  yards.  That  is  to  say,  the  144  yards  which  the 
gross  once  contained,  has  now  in  some  cases  dwindled 
down  to  60  yards.  In  widths,  as  well  as  in  lengths,  this 
deception  is  practised.  French  cotton-braid,  for  instance 
(French  only  in  name),  is  made  of  different  widths;  which 
are  respectively  marked  5,  Y,  9,  11,  etc. :  each  figure  indi- 
cating the  number  of  threads  of  cotton  which  the  width 
includes,  or  rather  should  include,  but  does  not.  For 
those  which  should  be  marked  5  are  marked  7 ;  and  those 
which  should  be  marked  7  are  marked  9 :  out  of  three 
samples  from  different  houses  shown  to  us  by  our  inform- 
ant, only  one  contained  the  alleged  number  of  threads. 
Fringe,  again,  which  is  sold  wrapped  on  card,  will  often 
be  found  two  inches  wide  at  the  end  exposed  to  view,  but 
will  diminish  to  one  inch  at  the  end  next  the  card ;  or  per- 
haps the  first  twenty  yards  will  be  good,  and  all  the  rest, 
hidden  under  it,  will  be  bad.     These  frauds  are  committed 


114  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

unblusliingly,  and  as  a  matter  of  business.  We  have  our- 
selves read  in  an  agent's  order-book,  the  details  of  an  order, 
specifying  the  actual  lengths  of  which  the  articles  were  to 
be  cut,  and  the  much  greater  lengths  to  be  marked  on  the 
labels.  And  we  have  been  told  by  a  manufacturer  who 
was  required  to  make  up  tapes  into  lengths  of  fifteen 
yards,  and  label  them  as  "warranted  18  yards,"  that 
when  he  did  not  label  them  falsely,  his  goods  were 
sent  back  to  him ;  and  that  the  greatest  concession  he 
could  obtain,  was  to  be  allowed  to  send  them  without 
labels. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  in  their  dealings  with 
manufacturers,  these  wholesale-houses  adopt  a  code  of 
morals  differing  much  from  that  which  regulates  their 
dealings  with  retailers.  The  facts  prove  it  to  be  much  the 
same.  A  buyer  for  instance  (who  exclusively  conducts 
the  purchases  of  a  wholesale-house  from  manufacturers) 
will  not  unfrequently  take  from  a  first-class  maker  a  small 
supply  of  some  new  fabric,  on  the  pattern  of  which  much 
time  and  money  have  been  spent ;  and  this  new-pattern 
fabric  he  will  put  into  the  hands  of  another  maker,  to  have 
copied  in  large  quantities.  Some  buyers,  again,  give  their 
orders  verbally,  that  they  may  have  the  opportunity  of 
afterwards  repudiating  them  if  they  wish  ;  and  in  a  case 
narrated  to  us,  where  a  manufacturer  who  had  been  thus 
deluded,  wished  on  a  subsequent  occasion  to  guarantee 
himself  by  obtaining  the  buyer's  signature  to  his  order,  he 
was  refused  it. 

For  other  unjust  acts  of  wholesale-houses,  the  heads  of 
these  establishments  are,  we  presume,  responsible.  Small 
manufacturers  working  with  insufficient  capital,  and  in 
times  of  depression  not  having  the  wherewith  to  meet 
their  engagements,  are  often  obliged  to  become  depend- 
ants on  the  wholesale-houses  with  which  they  deal ;  and 
are  then  cruelly  taken  advantage  of.     One  who  has  thus 


KNAVERIES   OF   WHOLESALE   HOUSES.  115 

committed  himself,  has  either  to  sell  his  accumulated  stock 
at  a  great  sacrifice — thirty  to  forty  per  cent,  below  its 
value — or  else  to  mortgage  it ;  and  when  the  wholesale- 
house  becomes  the  mortgagee,  the  manufacturer  has  little 
chance  of  escape.  He  is  obliged  to  work  at  the  whole- 
saler's terms ;  and  ruin  almost  certainly  follows.  This  is 
especially  the  case  in  the  silk-hoisery  business.  As  was 
said  to  us  by  one  of  the  larger  silk-hosiers,  who  had 
watched  the  desti-uction  of  many  of  his  smaller  brethren 
— "  They  may  be  spared  for  a  while  as  a  cat  spares  a 
mouse ;  but  they  are  sure  to  be  eaten  up  in  the  end." 
And  we  can  the  more  readily  credit  this  statement,  from 
having  found  that  a  like  policy  is  pursued  by  some  pro- 
vincial curriers  in  their  dealings  with  small  shoe-makers ; 
and  also  by  hop-merchants  and  maltsters  in  their  dealings 
with  small  publicans.  We  read  that  in  Hindostan,  the 
ryots,  when  crops  fall  short,  borrow  from  the  Jews  to 
buy  seed ;  and  once  in  their  clutches  are  doomed.  It 
seems  that  our  commercial  world  can  furnish  parallels. 

Of  another  class  of  wholesale-traders — those  who  sup- 
ply grocers  with  foreign  and  colonial  produce — we  may 
say  that  though,  in  consequence  of  the  nature  of  their 
business,  their  mal-practices  are  less  numerous  and  multi- 
form, as  well  as  less  glaring,  they  are  of  much  the  same 
stamp  as  the  foregoing.  Unless  it  is  to  be  supposed  that 
sugar  and  spices  are  moral  antiseptics  as  well  as  physical 
ones,  it  must  be  expected  that  wholesale  dealers  in  them 
will  transgress  much  as  other  wholesale  dealers  do,  in 
those  directions  where  the  facilities  are  greatest.  And 
the  truth  is,  that  both  in  the  qualities  and  quantities  of 
the  articles  they  sell,  they  take  advantage  of  the  retail- 
ers. The  descriptions  they  give  of  their  commodities  are 
habitually  misrepresentations.  Samples  sent  round  to 
their  customers  are  characterized  as  first-rate  when  they 
are  really  second-rate.     The  travellers  are  expected  to  en- 


116  THE  MORALS  OF  TEADE. 

dorse  these  untrue  statements.  And  unless  the  grocer 
has  adequate  keenness  and  extensive  knowledge,  he  is 
more  or  less  deceived.  In  some  cases,  indeed,  no  skill 
will  save  him.  There  are  frauds  that  have  grown  up 
little  by  little  into  customs  of  the  trade,  which  the  re- 
tailer must  submit  to.  In  the  purchase  of  sugar,  for  ex- 
ample, he  is  imposed  on  in  respect  alike  of  the  goodness 
and  the  weight. 

The  history  of  the  dishonesty  is  this:  Originally  the 
tare  allowed  by  the  merchant  on  each  hogshead,  was  14  per 
cent,  of  the  gross  weight.  The  actual  weight  of  the  w^ood 
of  which  the  hogshead  was  made,  was  at  that  time  about 
12  per  cent,  of  the  gross  weight.  And  thus  the  trade 
allowance  left  a  profit  of  2  per  cent,  to  the  buyer.  Gradu- 
ally, however,  the  hogshead  has  grown  thicker  and  heavier ; 
until  now,  instead  of  amounting  to  12  per  cent,  of  the 
gross  weight,  it  amounts  to  17  per  cent.  And  as  the 
allowance  of  14  per  cent,  still  continues,  the  result  is  that 
the  retail  grocer  loses  3  per  cent. :  to  the  extent  of  3  per 
cent,  he  buys  wood  in  the  place  of  sugar.  In  the  quality 
of  the  sugar,  he  is  deluded  by  the  practice  of  giving  him 
a  sample  only  from  the  best  part  of  the  hogshead.  Dur- 
ing its  voyage  from  Jamaica  or  elsewhere,  the  contents  of 
a  hogshead  undergo  a  certain  slow  draining.  The  molas- 
ses, of  which  more  or  less  is  always  present,  filters  from 
the  uppermost  part  of  the  mass  of  sugar  to  the  lowermost 
part ;  and  this  lowermost  part,  technically  known  as  the 
"  foot,"  is  of  darker  colour  and  smaller  value.  The  quan- 
tity of  it  contained  in  a  hogshead,  varies  greatly;  and  the 
retailer,  receiving  a  false  sample,  has  to  guess  what  the 
quantity  of  "  foot "  may  be ;  and  to  his  cost  often  under- 
estimates it.  As  will  be  seen  from  the  following  letter, 
copied  from  the  Public  Ledger  for  the  20th  Oct.,  1858, 
these  grievances,  more  severe  even  than  we  have  repre- 
sented them,  are  now  exciting  an  agitation : 


FEAUDS   OF  WHOLESALE   GROCERS.  117 

"  To  the  Retail  Grocers  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
"  Gentlemen, — The  time  has  arrived  for  the  trade  at  once  to 
make  a  move  for  the  revision  of  tares  on  all  raw  sugars.  Facts 
prove  the  evil  of  the  present  system  to  be  greatly  on  the  increase. 
We  submit  a  case  as  under,  and  only  one  out  of  twenty.  On  the 
30th  August,  1858,  we  bought  3  hogsheads  of  Barbados,  mark  TG 

K 


Invoice  Tares. 

Ee  Tares. 

No.      cwt. 

qrs.  lb.  lb. 

No.  cwt.  qrs.  lb. 

1  ...  1 

2     14  6  drift. 

1  .  .  1     3    27 

r .  .  .  1 

2      7 

7  .  .  1     3    20 

3  ...  1 

2     21 

3  .  .  1     3    27 

4 

3     20 

5     3     18 

Deduct 

....  4    3    20 

t42- 

£  s.d. 
-2  1  3 

0    3    26  a 

"  We  make  a  claim  for  £2  1*.  M. ;  we  are  told  by  the  whole- 
sale grocer  there  is  no  redress. 

"  There  is  another  evil  which  the  retail  grocer  has  to  contend 
with,  that  is,  the  mode  of  sampling  raw  sugar :  the  foots  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  merchants'  samples.  Facts  will  prove  that  in 
thousands  of  hogsheads  of  Barbados  this  season  there  is  an  aver- 
age of  5  cwt.  of  foots  in  each ;  we  have  turned  out  some  with  10 
cwt.,  which  are  at  least  5«.  per  cwt.  less  value  than  sample,  and  in 
these  cases  we  are  told  again  there  is  no  redress. 

"These  two  causes  are  bringing  hundreds  of  hard-working 
men  to  ruin,  and  will  bring  hundreds  more  unless  the  trade  take 
it  up,  and  we  implore  them  to  unite  in  obtaining  so  important  a 
revision. 

"  We  are.  Gentlemen,  your  obedient  servants, 

"  Walker  and  Staines.* 

"  Birmingham,  October  19,  1858." 

A  more  subtle  method  of  imposition  remains  to  be 

added.     It  is  the  practice  of  sugar-refiners  to  put  moist, 

crushed  sugar  into  dried  casks.     During  the  time  that 

elapses  before  one  of  these  casks  is  opened  by  the  retailer, 

*  The  abuses  described  in  this  letter  have  now,  we  believe,  been  abolished. 


118  THE  MORALS  OF  TEADE. 

the  desiccated  wood  has  taken  up  the  excess  of  water 
from  the  sugar ;  which  is  so  brought  again  into  good  con- 
dition. When  the  retailer,  however,  finding  that  the  cask 
weighs  much  more  than  was  allowed  as  tare  by  the  whole- 
sale dealer,  complains  to  him  of  this  excess,  the  reply  is — 
"  Send  it  up  to  us,  and  we  will  dry  it  and  weigh  it,  as  is 
the  custom  of  the  trade." 

Without  further  detailing  these  mal-practices,  of  which 
the  above  examples  are  perhaps  the  worst,  we  will  advert 
only  to  one  other  point  in  the  transactions  of  these  large 
houses — ^the  dra wing-up  of  trade-circulars.  It  is  the  prac- 
tice of  many  wholesalers  to  send  round  to  their  custom- 
ers, periodic  accounts  of  the  past  transactions,  present  con- 
dition, and  prospects  of  the  markets.  Serving  as  checks 
on  each  other,  as  they  do,  these  documents  are  prevented 
from  swerving  very  widely  from  the  truth.  But  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  they  should  be  quite  honest. 
Those  who  issue  them,  being  in  most  cases  interested  in 
the  prices  of  the  commodities  referred  to  in  their  circulars, 
are  swayed  by  their  interests  in  the  representations  they 
make  respecting  the  probabilities  of  the  future.  Far-see- 
ing retailers  are  on  their  guard  against  this.  A  large  pro- 
vincial grocer,  who  thoroughly  understands  his  business, 
said  to  us — "As  a  rule,  I  throw  trade-circulars  on  the 
fire."  And  that  this  estimate  of  their  trustworthiness  is 
not  unwarranted,  we  gather  from  the  expressions  of  those 
engaged  in  other  businesses.  From  two  leather-dealers, 
one  in  the  country  and  one  in  London,  we  have  heard  the 
same  complaint  against  the  circulars  published  by  houses 
in  their  trade,  that  they  are  misleading.  Not  that  they 
state  untruths ;  but  that  they  produce  false  impressions 
by  leaving  out  facts  which  they  should  have  stated. 

In  illustrating  the  morality  of  manufacturers,  we  shall 
confine  ourselves  to  one  class — ^those  who  work  in  silk. 


DISHONESTIES   OF   MANUFACTURERS.  119 

And  it  will  be  the  most  convenient  method  of  arranging 
facts,  to  follow  the  silk  through  its  varions  stages ;  from 
its  state  when  imported,  to  its  state  when  ready  for  the 
wearer. 

Bundles  of  raw  silk  from  abroad — not  uncommonly- 
weighted  with  rubbish,  stones,  or  rouleaux  of  Chinese  cop- 
per coin,  to  the  loss  of  the  buyer — are  disposed  of  by  auc- 
tion. Purchases  are  made  on  behalf  of  the  silk-dealers  by 
"  sworn  brokers ; "  and  the  regulation  is,  that  these  sworn 
brokers  shall  confine  themselves  solely  to  their  functions 
as  agents.  From  a  silk-manufacturer,  however,  we  learn 
that  they  are  currently  understood  to  be  themselves  spec- 
ulators in  silk,  either  directly  or  by  proxy;  and  that  as 
thus  personally  interested  in  prices,  they  become  faulty  as 
agents.  We  give  this,  however,  simply  as  a  prevailing 
opinion ;  for  the  truth  of  which  we  do  not  vouch. 

The  silk  bought  by  the  London  dealer,  he  sends  into 
the  manufacturing  districts  to  be  "  thrown  ; "  that  is,  to 
be  made  into  thread  fit  for  weaving.  In  the  established 
form  of  bargain  between  the  silk-dealer  and  the  silk- 
throwster,  we  have  a  strange  instance  of  an  organized  and 
recognized  deception  ;  which  has  seemingly  grown  out  of 
a  check  on  a  previous  deception.  The  throwing  of  silk  is 
necessarily  accompanied  by  some  waste ;  from  broken 
ends,  knots,  and  fibres  too  weak  to  wind.  This  waste 
varies  in  different  kinds  of  silks  from  3  per  cent,  to  20  per 
cent. :  the  average  being  about  5  per  cent.  The  percent- 
age of  waste  being  thus  variable,  it  is  obvious  that  in  the 
absence  of  restraint,  a  dishonest  silk-throwster  might  ab- 
stract a  portion  of  the  silk ;  and  on  returning  the  rest  to 
the  dealer,  might  plead  that  the  great  diminution  in  the 
weight  had  resulted  from  the  large  amount  of  loss  in  the 
process  of  throwing.  Hence  there  has  arisen  a  system, 
called  "  working  on  cost,"  which  requires  the  throwster 
to  send  back  to  the  dealer  the  same  weight  of  silk  which 


120  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

he  receives :  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  being,  we  presume, 
that  whatever  waste  the  throwster  makes  must  be  at  his 
own  cost.  Now,  as  it  is  impossible  to  throw  silk  without 
some  waste — at  least  3  per  cent.,  and  ordinarily  5  per  cent. 
— this  arrangement  necessitates  a  deception ;  if,  indeed, 
that  can  be  called  a  deception  which  is  tacitly  understood 
by  all  concerned.  The  silk  has  to  be  weighted.  As  much 
as  is  lost  in  throwing,  has  to  be  made  up  by  some  foreign 
substance  introduced.  Soap  is  largely  used  for  this.  In 
small  quantity,  soap  is  requisite  to  facilitate  the  running 
of  the  threads  in  the  process  of  manufacture ;  and  the 
quantity  is  readily  increased.  Sugar  also  is  used.  And 
by  one  means  or  other,  the  threads  are  made  to  absorb 
enough  matter  to  produce  the  desired  weight.  To  this 
system  all  silk-throwsters  are  obliged  to  succumb ;  and 
some  of  them  carry  it  to  a  great  extent,  as  a  means  of 
hiding  either  carelessness  or  something  worse. 

The  next  stage  through  which  silk  passes,  is  that  of 
dyeing.  Here,  too,  impositions  have  grown  chronic  and 
general.  In  times  past,  as  we  learn  from  a  ribbon-manu- 
facturer, the  weighting  by  water  was  the  chief  dishonesty ; 
bundles  returned  from  the  dyer's,  if  not  manifestly  damp, 
still  containing  moisture  enough  to  make  up  for  a  portion  of 
the  silk  that  had  been  kept  back.  And  precautions  had  to 
be  taken  to  escape  losses  thus  entailed.  Since  then,  how- 
ever, there  has  arisen  a  method  of  deception  which  leaves 
this  far  behind — ^that  of  employing  heavy  dyes.  The  fol- 
lowing details  have  been  given  us  by  a  silk-throwster.  It 
is  now,  he  says,  some  five-and-thirty  years  since  this 
method  was  commenced.  Before  that  time,  silk  lost  a 
considerable  part  of  its  weight  in  the  copper.  It  appears 
that  the  ultimate  fibre  of  silk  is  coated,  in  issuing  from  the 
spinneret  of  the  silk-worm,  with  a  film  of  varnish  that  is 
soluble  in  boiling  water.  In  dyeing,  therefore,  this  film, 
amounting  to  25  per  cent,  of  the  entire  weight  of  the  silk, 


FRAUDS   m  THE   SILK  BUSINESS.  121 

is  dissolved  off;  and  the  silk  is  rendered  that  much  lighter. 
So  that  originally,  for  every  sixteen  ounces  of  silk  sent  to 
the  dyer's,  only  twelve  ounces  were  returned.  Gradually, 
however,  by  the  use  of  heavy  dyes,  this  result  has  been 
reversed.  The  silk  now  gains  in  weight ;  and  sometimes 
to  a  scarcely  credible  extent.  According  to  the  require- 
ment, silk  is  sent  back  from  the  dyer's  of  any  weight  from 
twelve  ounces  to  the  pound,  up  to  forty  ounces  to  the 
pound.  The  original  pound  of  silk,  instead  of  losing  four 
ounces,  as  it  naturally  would,  is  actually,  when  certain 
black  dyes  are  used,  made  to  gain  as  much  as  twenty-four 
ounces  !  Instead  of  25  per  cent,  lighter,  it  is  returned  150 
per  cent,  heavier — ^is  weighted  with  175  per  cent,  of  for- 
eign matter  !  Now  as,  during  tliis  stage  of  its  manufac- 
ture, the  transactions  in  silk  are  carried  on  by  weight,  it 
is  manifest  that  in  the  introduction  and  development  of 
this  system,  we  have  a  long  history  of  frauds.  At  present 
all  in  the  trade  are  aware  of  it,  and  on  their  guard  against 
it.  Like  other  modes  of  adulteration,  in  becoming  estab- 
lished and  universal,  it  has  ceased  to  be  profitable  to  any 
one.  But  it  still  serves  to  indicate  the  morals  of  those 
concerned. 

The  thrown  and  dyed  silk  passes  into  the  hands  of  the 
weaver;  and  here  again  we  come  upon  dishonesties. 
Manufacturers  of  figured  silks,  sin  against  their  fellows  by 
stealing  their  patterns.  The  laws  that  have  been  found 
necessary  to  prevent  this  species  of  piracy,  show  that  it 
has  been  carried  to  a  great  extent.  Even  now  it  is  not 
prevented.  One  who  has  himself  suffered  from  it,  tells  us 
that  manufacturers  still  get  each  other's  designs  by  bribing 
the  workmen.  In  their  dealings  with  "  buyers,"  too,  some 
manufacturers  resort  to  deceptions :  perhaps  tempted  to 
do  so  by  the  desire  to  compensate  themselves  for  the  heavy 
tax  paid  in  treating,  etc.  Certain  goods  that  have  already 
been  seen  and  declined  by  other  buyers,  are  brought  before 
6 


122  THE  MOBALS  OF  TRADE. 

a  subsequent  one  with  artfully-devised  appearances  of 
secrecy;  accompanied  by  professions  that  these  goods 
have  been  specially  reserved  for  his  inspection :  a  manceu- 
vre  by  which  an  unwary  man  is  sometimes  betrayed. 
That  the  process  of  production  has  its  delusions,  scarcely 
needs  saying.  In  the  ribbon-trade,  for  example,  there  is  a 
practice  called  "  top-ending ; "  that  is,  making  the  first 
three  yards  good,  and  the  rest  (which  is  covered  when 
rolled  up)  of  bad  or  loose  texture — 80  "  shutes "  to  the 
inch  instead  of  108.  And  then  there  comes  the  issuing  of 
imitations  made  of  inferior  materials — ^textile  adulterations 
as  we  may  call  them.  This  practice  of  debasement,  not 
an  occasional  but  an  established  one,  is  carried  to  a  sur- 
prising extent ;  and  with  surprising  rapidity.  Some  new 
fabric,  first  sold  at  Is.  Qd.  per  yard,  is  supplanted  by  suc- 
cessive counterfeits ;  until  at  the  end  of  eighteen  months 
a  semblance  of  it  is  selling  at  4e.  Sd.  per  yard.  N'ay,  still 
greater  depreciations  of  quality  and  price  take  place — 
from  105.  down  to  3s.,  and  even  2s.  per  yard.  Until  at 
length  the  badness  of  these  spurious  fabrics  becomes  so 
conspicuous,  that  they  are  unsaleable  ;  and  there  ensues  a 
reaction,  ending  either  in  the  reintroduction  of  the  origi- 
nal fabric,  or  in  the  production  of  some  novelty  to  supply 
its  place. 

Among  our  notes  of  mal-practices  in  trade,  retail, 
wholesale,  and  manufacturing,  we  have  many  others  that 
must  be  passed  over.  We  cannot  here  enlarge  on  the  not 
uncommon  trick  of  using  false  trade-marks ;  or  imitating 
another  maker's  wrappers;  and  so  deluding  purchasers. 
We  must  be  satisfied  with  simply  referring  to  the  doings 
of  apparently-reputable  houses,  which  purchase  goods 
known  to  be  dishonestly  obtained.  And  we  are  obliged 
to  refrain  from  particularizing  certain  established  arrange- 
ments, existing  under  cover  of  the  highest  respectability, 


MEN  FORCED  INTO  DISHONESTY.  123 

which  seem  intended  to  facilitate  these  nefarious  transac- 
tions. The  frauds  we  have  detailed  are  but  samples  of  a 
state  of  things  which  it  would  take  a  volume  to  describe 
in  full. 

The  further  instances  of  trading-immorality  which  it 
seems  desirable  here  to  give,  are  those  which  carry  with 
them  a  certain  excuse ;  showing  as  they  do  how  insensibly, 
and  almgst  irresistibly,  men  are  thrust  into  vicious  prac- 
tices. rAlways,  no  doubt,  some  utterly  unconscientious 
trader  is  the  first  to  introduce  a  new  form  of  fraud.  He 
is  by-and-by  followed  by  others  who  wear  their  moral 
codes  but  loosely.  The  more  upright  traders  are  continu- 
ally tempted  to  adopt  this  questionable  device  which  those 
around  them  are  adopting.  The  greater  the  number  who 
yield,  and  the  more  general  and  familiar  the  device  be- 
comes, the  more  difficult  is  it  for  the  remainder  to  stand 
out  against  it.  The  pressure  of  competition  upon  them, 
becomes  more  and  more  severe.  They  have  to  fight  an 
unequal  battle:  debarred  as  they  are  from  one  of  the 
sources  of  profit  which  their  antagonists  possess.  And 
they  are  finally  almost  compelled  to  follow  the  lead  of  the 
rest.^Take  for  example  what  has  happened  in  the  candle- 
trade.  As  all  know,  the  commoner  kinds  of  candles  are 
sold  in  bunches,  supposed  to  weigh  a  pound  each.  Origi- 
nally, the  nominal  weight  corresponded  with  the  real 
weight.  But  at  present  the  weight  is  habitually  short, 
by  an  amount  varying  from  half  an  ounce  to  two  ounces 
— ^is  sometimes  depreciated  12^  per  cent. 

If,  now,  an  honest  chandler  ofiers  to  supply  a  retailer 
at,  say  six  shillings  for  the  dozen  pounds,  the  answer  he 
receives  is — "  Oh,  we  get  them  for  five-and-eightpence." 
"  But  mine,"  replies  the  chandler,  "  are  of  full  weight ; 
while  those  you  buy  at  five-and-eightpence  are  not." 
"  What  does  that  matter  to  me  ?"  the  retailer  rejoins — "  a 
pound  of  candles  is  a  pound  of  candles :  my  customers 


124  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

buy  them  in  the  bunch,  and  won't  know  the  difference 
between  yours  and  another's."  And  the  honest  chandler, 
being  everywhere  met  with  this  argument,  finds  that  he 
must  either  make  his  pounds  of  short  weight,  or  give  up 
business.  Take  another  case,  which,  like  the  last,  we  have 
direct  from  the  mouth  of  one  who  has  been  obliged  to 
succumb.  It  is  that  of  a  manufacturer  of  the  elastic  web- 
bing, now  extensively  used  in  making  boots,  etc.  From  a 
London  house  with  which  he  dealt  largely,  this  manufac- 
turer recently  received  a  sample  of  webbing  produced  by 
some  one  else,  accompanied  by  the  question,  "  Can  you 

make  us  this  at per  yard  ?"  (naming  a  price  below 

that  at  which  he  had  before  supplied  them)  ;  and  hinting 
that  if  he  could  not  do  so,  they  must  go  elsewhere.  On 
pulling  to  pieces  the  sample  (which  he  showed  to  us),  this 
manufacturer  found  that  sundry  of  the  threads  which 
should  have  been  of  silk  were  of  cotton.  Indicating  this 
fact  to  those  who  sent  him  the  sample,  he  replied  that  if 
he  made  a  like  substitution,  he  could  furnish  the  fabric  at 
the  price  named ;  and  the  result  was  that  he  eventually 
did  thus  furnish  it.  He  saw  that  if  he  did  not  do  so,  he 
must  lose  a  considerable  share  of  his  trade.  He  saw  fur- 
ther, that  if  he  did  not  at  once  yield,  he  would  have  to 
yield  in  the  end;  for  that  other  elastic-webbing-makers 
would  one  after  another  engage  to  produce  this  adulterated 
fabric  at  correspondingly  diminished  prices ;  and  that 
when  at  length  he  stood  alone  in  selling  an  apparently 
similar  article  at  a  higher  price,  his  business  would  leave 
him.  This  manufacturer  we  have  the  best  reason  for 
knowing  to  be  a  man  of  fine  moral  nature,  both  generous 
and  upright ;  and  yet  we  here  see  him  obliged,  in  a  sense, 
to  implicate  himself  in  one  of  these  processes  of  vitiation. 
It  is  a  startling  assertion,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  true 
one,  that  those  who  resist  these  corruptions,  often  do  it  at 
the  risk  of  bankruptcy :  sometimes  the  certainty  of  bank- 


HONESTY  THE  ROAD  TO  BANKEUPTCY.       125 

ruptcy.  We  do  not  say  this  simply  as  a  manifest  infer- 
ence from  the  conditions,  as  above  described ;  we  say  it 
on  the  warrant  of  instances  that  have  been  given  to  us. 
From  one  brought  up  in  his  house,  we  have  had  the  his- 
tory of  a  draper,  who,  carrying  his  conscience  into  his 
shop,  refused  to  commit  the  current  frauds  of  the  trade. 
He  would  not  represent  his  goods  as  of  better  quality 
than  they  really  were ;  he  would  not  say  that  patterns 
were  just  out,  when  they  had  been  issued  the  previous 
season  ;  he  would  not  warrant  to  wash  well,  colours  which 
he  knew  to  be  fugitive.  Refraining  from  these  and  the 
like  mal-practices  of  his  competitors ;  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, daily  failing  to  sell  various  articles  which  his  com- 
petitors would  have  sold  by  force  of  lying ;  his  business 
was  so  unremunerative  that  he  twice  became  bankrupt. 
And  in  the  opinion  of  our  informant,  he  inflicted  more 
evil  upon  others  by  his  bankruptcies,  than  he  would  have 
done  by  committing  the  usual  trade-dishonesties. 

See,  then,  how  complicated  the  question  becomes  ;  and 
how  difficult  to  estimate  the  trader's  criminality.  Often 
— generally  indeed— he  has  to  choose  between  two  wrongs. 
He  has  tried  to  carry  on  his  business  with  strict  integrity. 
He  has  sold  none  but  genuine  articles  ;  and  has  given  full 
measure.  Others  in  the  same  business  adulterate  or  oth- 
erwise delude ;  and  are  so  able  to  undersell  him.  His 
customers,  not  adequately  appreciating  the  superiority  in 
the  quality  or  quantity  of  his  goods,  and  attracted  by 
the  apparent  cheapness  at  other  shops,  desert  him.  An 
inspection  of  his  books  proves  the  alarming  fact,  that  his 
diminishing  returns  will  soon  be  insufficient  to  meet  his 
engagements,  and  provide  for  his  increasing  family.  What 
then  must  he  do  ?  Must  he  continue  his  present  course ; 
stop  payment ;  inflict  heavy  losses  on  his  creditors ;  and 
with  his  wife  and  children  turn  out  into  the  streets  ?  Or 
must  he  follow  the  example  of  his  competitors  ;  use  their 


126  THE  MOEALS   OF  TRADE. 

artifices ;  and  give  his  customers  the  same  apparent  advan- 
tages ?  The  last  not  only  seems  the  least  detrimental  to 
himself,  but  also  may  be  considered  the  least  detrimental 
to  others.  Moreover,  the  like  is  done  by  men  regarded  as 
respectable.  Why  should  he  min  himself  and  family  in 
trying  to  be  better  than  his  neighbours  ?  He  will  do  as 
they  do. 

Such  is  the  position  of  the  trader  ;  such  is  the  reason- 
ing by  which  he  justifies  himself;  and  it  is  hard  to  visit 
him  with  any  thing  like  harsh  condemnation.  Of  course 
this  statement  of  his  case  is  by  no  means  universally  true. 
There  are  businesses  in  which,  competition  being  less  ac- 
tive, the  excuse  for  falling  into  coiTupt  practices  does  not 
hold ;  and  here,  indeed,  we  find  corrupt  practices  much 
less  prevalent.  Many  traders,  too,  have  obtained  connec- 
tions which  secure  to  them  adequate  returns  without  de- 
scending to  small  rogueries ;  and  they  have  no  defence  if 
they  thus  degrade  themselves.  Moreover,  there  are  the 
men — commonly  not  prompted  by  necessity,  but  by  greed 
— who  introduce  these  adulterations  and  petty  frauds ;  and 
on  these  should  descend  unmitigated  indignation :  both  as 
being  themselves  criminals  without  excuse,  and  as  causing 
criminality  in  others.  Leaving  out,  however,  these  com- 
paratively small  classes,  we  think  that  most  traders  by 
whom  all  the  commoner  businesses  are  carried  on,  must 
receive  a  much  more  qualified  censure  than  they  at  first 
sight  seem  to  deserve :  forced  to  give  way,  as  they  are, 
by  the  alternative  of  ruin.  On  all  sides  we  have  met  with 
the  same  conviction,  that  for  those  engaged  in  the  ordi- 
nary trades,  there  are  but  two  courses — either  to  adopt 
the  practices  of  their  competitors,  or  to  give  up  business. 
Men  in  different  occupations  and  in  difierent  places — men 
naturally  conscientious,  who  manifestly  chafed  under  the 
degradations  they  submitted  to,  have  one  and  all  expressed 
to  us  the  sad  belief,  that  it  is  impossible  to  carry  on  trade 


CONSCIENCE  A  BAERIER  TO  SUCCESS.  127 

"with  strict  rectitude.  Their  concurrent  opinion,  independ- 
ently given  by  each,  is,'that  the  scrupulously  honest  man 
must  go  the  walL 

But  that  it  has  been  during  the  past  year  frequently 
treated  by  the  daily  press,  we  might  here  enter  at  some 
length  on  the  topic  of  banking-delinquenjcies.  As  it  is, 
we  may  presume  all  to  be  familiar  with  the  facts ;  and 
shall  limit  ourselves  to  making  a  few  comments. 

In  the  opinion  of  one  whose  means  of  judging  have 
been  second  to  those  of  few,  the  directors  of  joint-stock 
banks  have  rarely  been  guilty  of  direct  dishonesty.  Ad- 
mitting notorious  exceptions,  the  general  fact  appears  to 
be,  that  directors  have  had  no  immediate  interests  in  fur- 
thering these  speculations  which  have  proved  so  minous 
to  depositors  and  shareholders ;  but  have  usually  been 
among  the  greatest  sufferers.  Their  fault  has  rather  been 
the  less  flagitious,  though  still  grave  fault,  of  indifference 
to  their  responsibilities.  Often  with  very  inadequate 
knowledge,  they  have  undertaken  to  trade  with  a  vast 
amount  of  property  belonging  in  great  part  to  needy  peo- 
ple. Instead  of  using  as  much  care  in  the  investment  of 
this  property  as  though  it  were  their  own,  many  of  them 
have  shown  culpable  recklessness :  either  themselves  loan- 
ing capital  without  adequate  guarantee,  or  else  passively 
allowing  their  colleagues  to  do  this.  Sundry  excuses  may 
doubtless  be  made  for  them.  The  well-known  defects  of 
a  corporate  conscience,  caused  by  divided  responsibility, 
must  be  remembered  in  mitigation.  And  it  may  also  be 
pleaded  for  such  delinquents,  that  if  shareholders,  swayed 
by  reverence  for  mere  wealth  and  position,  choose  as  di- 
rectors, not  the  most  intelligent,  the  most  experienced, 
and  those  of  longest-tried  probity,  but  those  of  largest 
capital  or  highest  rank,  the  blame  must  not  be  cast  solely 
on  the  men  so  chosen ;  but  must  be  shared  by  the  men 


128  THE  MORALS  OF  TEADE. 

who  choose  them :  and  ftirther,  must  fall  on  the  public  as 
well  as  on  shareholders  ;  seeing  that  this  unwise  selection 
of  directors  is  in  part  determined  by  the  known  bias  of 
depositors. 

But  after  all  allowances  have  been  made,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  these  bank-administrators  who  risk  the 
property  of  their  clients  by  loaning  it  to  speculators,  are 
near  akin  in  morality  to  the  speculators  themselves.  As 
these  speculators  risk  other  men's  money  in  undertakings 
which  they  hope  will  be  profitable ;  so  do  the  directors 
who  lend  them  the  money.  If  these  last  plead  that  the 
money  thus  lent,  is  lent  with  the  belief  that  it  will  be 
repaid  with  good  interest ;  the  first  may  similarly  plead 
that  they  expected  their  investment  to  return  the  bor- 
rowed capital  along  with  a  handsome  profit.  In  each  case 
the  transaction  is  one  of  which  the  evil  consequences,  if 
they  come,  fall  more  largely  on  others  than  on  the  actors. 
And  though  it  may  be  contended,  on  behalf  of  the  direc- 
tor, that  what  he  does  is  done  chiefly  for  the  benefit  of  his 
constituents,  whereas  the  speculator  has  in  view  only  his 
own  benefit ;  it  may  be  replied  that  the  director's  blame- 
worthiness is  not  the  less  because  he  took  a  rash  step  with 
a  comparatively  weak  motive.  The  truth  is,  that  when  a 
bank-director  lends  the  capital  of  shareholders  to  those  to 
whom  he  would  not  lend  his  own  capital,  he  is  guilty  of  a 
breach  of  trust.  In  tracing  the  gradations  of  crime,  we 
pass  from  direct  robbery  to  robbery  one,  two,  three,  or 
more  degrees  removed.  Though  a  man  who  speculates 
with  other  people's  money,  is  not  chargeable  with  direct 
robbery,  he  is  chargeable  with  robbery  one  degree  re- 
moved:  he  deliberately  stakes  his  neighbour's  property, 
intending  to  appropriate  the  gain,  if  any,  and  to  let  his 
neighbour  suffer  the  loss,  if  any :  his  crime  is  that  of  con- 
tingent robbery.  And  hence  any  one  who,  standing  like 
a  bank-director  in  the  position  of  trustee,  puts  the  money 


ACCOMMODATION-BILLS  CHARACTERIZED.  129 

with  which  he  is  entrusted  into  a  speculator's  hands,  must 
be  called  an  accessory  to  contingent  robbery. 

If  so  grave  a  condemnation  is  to  be  passed  on  those 
who  lend  tinist-money  to  speculators,  as  well  as  on  the 
speculators  who  borrow  it,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  still 
more  delinquent  class  who  obtain  loans  by  fraud — who  not 
only  pawn  other  men's  property  when  obtained,  but  ob- 
tain it  under  false  pretences  ?  For  how  else  than  thus 
must  we  describe  the  doings  of  those  who  raise  money  by 
accommodation-bills  ?  When  A  and  B  agree,  the  one  to 
draw  and  the  other  to  accept  a  bill  of  £1,000  for  "value 
received  ;"  while  in  truth  there  has  been  no  sale  of  goods 
between  them,  or  no  value  received;  the  transaction  is 
not  simply  an  embodied  lie,  but  it  becomes  thereafter  a 
living  and  active  lie.  Whoever  discounts  the  bill,  does  so 
in  the  belief  that  B,  having  become  possessed  of  £1,000 
worth  of  goods,  will,  when  the  bill  falls  due,  have  either 
the  £1,000  worth  of  goods  or  some  equivalent,  with  which 
to  meet  it.  Did  he  know  that  there  were  no  such  goods 
in  the  hands  of  either  A  or  B,  and  no  other  property  avail- 
able for  liquidating  the  bill,  he  would  not  discount  it — he 
would  not  lend  money  to  a  man  of  straw  without  security. 

The  case  is  intrinsically  the  same  as  though  A  had 
taken  to  the  bank  a  forged  mortgage-deed,  and  obtained 
a  loan  upon  it.  Practically  an  accommodation-bill  is  a 
forgery.  It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  forgery  is  limited 
to  the  production  of  documents  that  are  physically  false — 
that  contain  signatures  or  other  symbols  which  are  not 
what  they  appear  to  be :  forgery,  properly  understood, 
equally  includes  the  production  of  documents  that  are 
morally  false.  What  constitutes  the  crime  committed  in 
forging  a  bank-note  ?  Not  the  mere  mechanical  imitation. 
This  is  but  a  means  to  the  end ;  and,  taken  alone,  is  no 
crime  at  all.  The  crime  consists  in  deluding  others  into 
the  acceptance  of  what  seems  to  be  a  representative  of  so 
6* 


130  THE  MOBALS  OF  TRADE. 

much  money,  but  which  actually  represents  nothing.  It 
matters  not  whether  the  delusion  is  effected  by  copying 
the  forms  of  the  letters  and  figures,  as  in  a  forged  bank- 
note, or  by  copying  the  form  of  expression,  as  in  an  accom- 
modation-bill. In  either  case  a  semblance  of  value  is 
given  to  that  which  has  no  value ;  and  it  is  in  giving  this 
false  appearance  of  value  that  the  crime  consists.  It  is 
true  that  generally,  the  acceptor  of  an  accommodation- 
bill  hopes  to  be  able  to  meet  it  when  due.  But  if  those 
who  think  this  exonerates  him,  will  remember  the  many 
cases  in  which,  by  the  use  of  forged  documents,  men  have 
obtained  possession  of  moneys  which  they  hoped  presently 
to  replace,  and  were  nevertheless  judged  guilty  of  forgery ; 
they  will  see  that  the  plea  is  insufficient. 

We  contend,  then,  that  the  manufacturers  of  accommo- 
dation-bills should  be  classed  as  forgers.  Whether,  if  the 
law  so  classed  them,  much  good  would  result,  we  are  not 
prepared  to  say.  Several  questions  present  themselves : — 
Whether  such  a  change  would  cause  inconvenience,  by 
negativing  the  many  harmless  transactions  carried  on  un- 
der this  fictitious  form  by  solvent  men?  Whether  making 
it  penal  to  use  the  words  "  value  received,"  unless  there 
had  been  valued  received,  would  not  simply  originate  an 
additional  class  of  bills  in  which  these  words  were 
omitted?  Whether  it  would  be  an  advantage  if  bills 
bore  on  their  faces,  proofs  that  they  did  or  did  not  repre^ 
sent  actual  sales  ?  Whether  a  restraint  on  undue  credit 
would  not  result,  when  bankers  and  discounters  saw  that 
certain  bills  coming  to  them  in  the  names  of  speculative 
or  unsubstantial  traders,  were  avowed  accommodation- 
bills?  But  these  are  questions  we  need  not  go  out  of  our 
way  to  discuss.  We  are  here  concerned  only  with  the 
morality  of  the  question. 

Duly  to  estimate  the  greatness  of  the  evils  indicated, 
however,  we  must  bear  in  mind  both  that  the  fraudulent 


THE  TRAm  OF  EVIL  CONSEQUENCES.       131 

transactions  thus  entered  into  are  numerous,  and  that  each 
generally  becomes  the  cause  of  many  others.  The  origi- 
nal lie  is  commonly  the  parent  of  further  lies,  which  again 
give  rise  to  an  increasing  progeny ;  and  so  on  for  succes- 
sive generations,  multiplying  as  they  descend.  When  A 
and  B  find  their  £1,000  bill  about  to  fall  due,  and  the  ex- 
pected proceeds  of  their  speculation  not  forthcoming — 
yhen  they  find,  as  they  often  do,  either  that  the  invest- 
i;iient  has  resulted  in  a  loss  instead  of  a  gain ;  or  that  the 
time  for  realizing  their  hoped-for  profits,  has  not  yet  come; 
or  that  the  profits,  if  there  are  any,  do  not  cover  the  ex- 
travagances of  living  which,  in  the  mean  time,  they  have 
sanguinely  indulged  in — when,  in  short,  they  find  that  the 
bill  cannot  be  taken  up ;  they  resort  to  the  expedient  of 
manufacturing  other  bills  with  which  to  liquidate  the  firs.t. 
And  while  they  are  about  it,  they  usually  think  it  will  be 
as  well  to  raise  a  somewhat  larger  sum  than  is  required  to 
meet  their  out-standing  engagements.  Unless  it  happens 
that  great  success  enables  them  to  redeem  themselves,  this 
proceeding  is  repeated,  and  again  repeated.  So  long  as 
there  is  no  momentary  crisis,  it  continues  easy  thus  to 
keep  afloat;  and,  indeed,  the  appearance  of  prosperity 
which  is  given  by  an  extended  circulation  of  bills  in  their 
names,  bearing  respectable  indorsements,  creates  a  confi- 
dence in  them  which  renders  the  obtainment  of  credit 
easier  than  at  first. 

And  where,  as  in  some  cases,  this  process  is  carried  to 
the  extent  of  employing  men  in  different  towns  through- 
out the  kingdom,  and  even  in  distant  parts  of  the  world, 
to  accept  bills,  the  appearances  are  still  better  kept  up, 
and  the  bubble  reaches  a  still  greater  development.  As, 
however,  all  these  transactions  are  carried  on  with 
borrowed  capital,  on  which  interest  has  to  be  paid ;  as, 
further,  the  maintenance  of  this  organized  fraud  entails 
constant  expenses,  as  well  as  occasional  sacrifices;  and 


132  THE  M0BAL8  OF  TEABE. 

as  it  is  in  the  very  nature  of  the  system  to  generate  reck- 
less speculation,  the  fabric  of  lies  is  almost  certain  ulti- 
mately to  fall ;  and,  in  falling,  to  ruin  or  embarrass  many 
others  besides  those  who  had  given  credit. 

Nor  does  the  evil  end  with  the  direct  penalties  from 
time  to  time  inflicted  on  honest  traders.  There  is  also  a 
grave  indirect  penalty  which  they  suffer  from  the  system. 
These  forgers  of  credit  are  habitually  instrumental  in  low- 
ering prices  below  their  natural  leveL  To  meet  emergen- 
cies, they  are  obliged  every  now  and  then  to  sell  goods  at 
a  loss :  the  alternative  being  immediate  stoppage.  Though 
with  each  such  concern,  this  is  but  an  occasional  occur- 
rence, yet,  taking  the  whole  number  of  them  connected 
with  any  one  business,  it  results  that  there  are  at  all  times 
some  who  are  making  sacrifices — at  all  times  some  who 
are  unnaturally  depressing  the  market.  In  short,  the 
capital  fraudulently  obtained  from  some  traders,  is,  in 
part,  dissipated  in  rendering  the  business  of  other  traders 
deficiently  remunerative :  often  to  their  serious  embarrass- 
ment. 

If,  however,  the  whole  truth  must  be  said,  the  condem- 
nation visited  on  these  commercial  vampires  is  not  to  be 
confined  wholly  to  them ;  but  is  in  some  degree  deserved 
by  a  much  more  numerous  class.  Between  the  penniless 
schemer  who  obtains  the  use  of  capital  by  false  pretences, 
and  the  upright  trader  who  never  contracts  greater  liabili- 
ties than  his  estate  will  liquidate,  there  lie  all  gradations. 
From  businesses  carried  on  entirely  with  other  people's 
capital  obtained  by  forgery,  we  pass  to  businesses  in 
which  there  is  a  real  capital  of  one-tenth,  and  a  credit- 
capital  of  nine-tenths ;  to  other  businesses  in  which  the 
ratio  of  real  to  fictitious  capital  is  somewhat  greater ;  and 
so  on  until  we  reach  the  very  extensive  class  of  men  who 
trade  but  a  little  beyond  their  means.  By  insensible  steps 
we  advance  from  the  one   extreme  to  the  other;   and 


GBADATI0N8   OF  DISHONESTY.  133 

these  most  venial  transgressors  cannot  be  wholly  ab- 
solved from  the  criminality  which  so  clearly  attaches  to 
the  rest. 

To  get  more  credit  than  would  be  given  were. the 
state  of  the  business  fully  known,  is  in  all  cases  the  aim ; 
and  the  cases  in  which  this  credit  is  partially  unwarranted, 
differ  only  in  degree  from  those  in  which  it  is  wholly  un- 
warranted. As  most  are  beginning  to  see,  the  prevalence 
of  this  indirect  dishonesty  has  not  a  little  to  do  with  our 
commercial  disasters.  Speaking  broadly,  the  tendency  is 
for  every  trader  to  hypothecate  the  capital  of  other  trad- 
ers, as  well  as  his  own.  And  when  A  has  borrowed  on 
the  strength  of  B's  credit;  B  on  the  strength  of  C's ;  and 
C  on  the  strength  of  A's — when,  throughout  the  trading 
world,  each  has  made  engagements  which  he  can  meet 
only  by  direct  or  indirect  aid — when  everybody  is  want- 
ing help  from  some  one  else,  to  save  him  from  falling  ;  a 
crash  is  certain.  The  punishment  of  a  general  unconscien- 
tiousness  may  be  postponed;  but  it  is  sure  to  come 
eventually. 

The  average  commercial  morality  cannot,  of  course, 
be  accurately  depicted  in  so  brief  a  space.  On  the  one 
hand,  we  have  been  able  to  give  but  a  few  typical  in- 
stances of  the  mal-practices  by  which  trade  is  disgraced. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  been  obliged  to  present  these 
alone ;  unqualified  by  the  large  amount  of  honest  dealing 
throughout  which  they  are  dispersed.  While,  by  accumu- 
lating such  evidences,  the  indictment  might  be  made  much 
heavier ;  by  diluting  them  with  the  immense  mass  of 
equitable  transactions  daily  carried  on,  the  verdict  would 
be  greatly  mitigated.  After  making  all  allowances,  how- 
ever, we  fear  that  the  state  of  things  is  very  bad.  And 
our  impression  on  this  point  is  due  less  to  the  particu- 
lar facts   above  given,  than  to  the  general  opinion  ex- 


134  THE  MOEALS  OF  TRADE. 

pi-essed  by  our  informants.  On  all  sides  we  have  found 
the  result  of  long  personal  experience,  to  be  the  con- 
viction that^ade  is  essentially  corruptA  In  tones  of  dis- 
gust or  discouragement,  reprehension  or  derision,  accord- 
ing to  their  several  natures,  men  in  business  have  one 
after  another  expressed  or  implied  this  belief.  Omitting 
the  highest  mercantile  classes,  a  few  of  the  less  common 
trades,  and  those  exceptional  cases  where  an  entire  com- 
mand of  the  market  has  been  obtained,  the  uniform  testi- 
mony of  competent  judges  is,Uhat  success  is  incompatible 
with  strict  integrityri  To  live  in  the  commercial  world  it 
appears  necessary  to  adopt  its  ethical  code :  neither  ex- 
ceeding nor  falling  short  of  it — neither  being  less  honest 
nor  more  honest.  Those  who  sink  below  its  standard  are 
expelled ;  while  those  who  rise  above  it  are  either  pulled 
down  to  it  or  ruined.  As,  in  self-defence,  the  civilized 
man  becomes  savage  among  savages ;  so,  it  seems  that  in 
self-defence,  the  scrupulous  trader  is  obliged  to  become  as 
little  scrupulous  as  his  competitors.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  law  of  the  animal  creation  is — "  Eat  and  be  eaten ; " 
and  of  our  trading  community  it  may  be  similarly  said 
that  its  law  is — Cheat  and  be  cheated.  jA  system  of  keen 
competition,  carried  on,  as  it  is,  without  adequate  moral 
restraint,  is  very  much  a  system  of  commercial  cannibal- 
ismj  Its  alternatives  are — Use  the  same  weapons  as  your 
antagonists,  or  be  conquered  and  devoured. 

Of  questions  suggested  by  these  facts,  one  of  the  most 
obvious  is — ^Are  not  the  prejudices  that  have  ever  been 
entertained  against  trade  and  traders,  thus  fully  justified  ? 
do  not  these  meannesses  and  dishonesties,  and  the  moral 
degradation  they  imply,  warrant  the  disrespect  shown  to 
men  in  business?  A  prompt  affirmative  answer  will 
probably  be  looked  for;  but  we  very  much  doubt  whether 
it  should  be  given.  We  are  rather  of  opinion  that  these 
delinquencies  are  products  of  the  average  English  charac- 


THE  TRADERS  RECRIMINATIONS.  135 

ter  placed  under  special  conditions.  There  is  no  good 
reason  for  assuming  that  the  trading  classes  are  intrinsic- 
ally worse  than  other  classes.  Men  taken  at  random  from 
higher  and  lower  ranks,  would,  most  likely,  if  similarly 
circumstanced,  do  much  the  same.  Indeed  the  mercantile 
world  might  readily  recriminate.  Is  it  a  solicitor  who 
comments  on  their  misdoings  ?  They  may  quickly  silence 
him  by  referring  to  the  countless  dark  stains  on  the  repu- 
tation of  his  fraternity.  Is  it  a  barrister  ?  His  frequent 
practice  of  putting  in  pleas  which  he  knows  are  not  valid ; 
and  his  established  habit  of  taking  fees  for  work  that  he 
does  not  perform ;  make  his  criticism  somewhat  suicidal. 
Does  the  condemnation  come  through  the  press  ?  The  con- 
demned may  remind  those  who  write,  of  the  fact  that  it  is 
not  quite  honest  to  utter  a  positive  verdict  on  a  book 
merely  glanced  through,  or  to  pen-glowing  eulogies  on  the 
mediocre  work  of  a  friend  while  slighting  the  good  one  of 
an  enemy ;  and  may  further  ask  whether  those  who,  at 
the  dictation  of  an  employer,  write  what  they  disbelieve, 
are  not  guilty  of  the  serious  offence  of  adulterating  public 
opinion. 

Moreover,  traders  might  contend  that  many  of  their 
delinquencies  are  thrust  on  them  by  the  injustice  of  their 
customers.  They,  and  especially  drapers,  might  point  to 
the  fact  that  the  habitual  demand  for  an  abatement  of 
price,  is  made  in  utter  disregard  of  their  reasonable  profits ; 
and  that  to  protect  themselves  against  attempts  to  gain 
by  their  loss,  they  are  obliged  to  name  prices  greater  than 
those  they  intend  to  take.  They  might  also  urge  that  the 
strait  to  which  they  are  often  brought  by  the  non-pay- 
ment of  accounts  due  from  their  wealthier  customers,  is 
itself  a  cause  of  their  mal-practices :  obliging  them,  as  it 
does,  to  use  all  means,  illegitimate  as  well  as  legitimate, 
for  getting  the  wherewith  to  meet  their  engagements.  In 
proof  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  them  by  the  non-trading 


136  THE  MOEALS  OF  TRADE. 

classes,  they  might  instance  the  well-known  cases  of  large 
shopkeepers  in  the  West-end,  who  have  been  either  ruined 
by  the  unpunctuality  of  their  customers,  or  have  been 
obliged  periodically  to  stop  payment,  as  the  only  way  of 
getting  their  bills  settled.  And  then,  after  proving  that 
those  without  excuse  show  this  disregard  of  other  men's 
claims,  traders  might  ask  whether  they,  who  have  the 
excuse  of  having  to  contend  with  a  merciless  competition, 
are  alone  to  be  blamed  if  they  display  a  like  disregard  in 
other  forms. 

Nay,  even  to  the  guardians  of  social  rectitude — mem- 
bers of  the  legislature — ^they  might  use  the  tu  quoqice 
argument:  asking  whether  bribery  of  a  customer's  ser- 
vant, is  any  worse  than  bribery  of  an  elector  ?  or  whether 
the  gaining  of  suffrages  by  clap-trap  hustings-speeches, 
containing  insincere  professions  adapted  to  the  taste  of 
the  constituency,  is  not  as  bad  as  getting  an  order  for 
goods  by  delusive  representations  respecting  their  quality  ? 
No ;  it  seems  probable  that  close  inquiry  would  show  few 
if  any  classes  to  be  free  from  immoralities  that  are  as 
great,  relatively  to  the  temptations^  as  these  which  we 
have  been  exposing.  Of  course  they  will  not  be  so  petty 
or  so  gross  where  the  circumstances  do  not  prompt  petti- 
ness or  grossness ;  nor  so  constant  and  organized  where 
the  class-conditions  have  not  tended  to  make  them  habit- 
ual. But,  taken  with  these  qualifications,  we  think  that 
much  might  be  said  for  the  proposition  that  the  trading 
classes,  neither  better  nor  worse  intrinsically  than  other 
classes,  are  betrayed  into  their  flagitious  habits  by  exter- 
nal causes. 

Another  question,  here  naturally  arising,  is — Are  not 
these  evils  growing  worse  ?  Many  of  the  facts  we  have 
cited  seem  to  imply  that  they  are.  And  yet  there  are 
many  other  facts  which  point  as  distinctly  the  other 
way.     In  weighing  the  evidence,  we  must  bear  in  mind, 


ARE  MATTERS   GROWma  WORSE?  137 

that  the  much  greater  public  attention  at  present  paid  to 
such  matters,  is  itself  a  source  of  error — is  apt  to  generate 
the  belief  that  evils  now  becoming  recognized,  are  evils 
that  have  recently  arisen;  when  in  truth  they  have  merely 
been  hitherto  disregarded,  or  less  regarded.  It  has  been 
clearly  thus  with  crime,  with  distress,  with  popular  igno- 
rance ;  and  it  is  very  probably  thus  with  trading-dishones-  -7 
ties.  As  it  is  true  of  individual  beings,  that  their  height 
in  the  scale  of  creation  may  be  measured  by  the  degree  of 
their  self-consciousness ;  so,  in  a  sense,  it  is  true  of  societies. 
Advanced  and  highly-organized  societies  are  distinguished 
from  lower  ones  by  the  evolution  of  something  that  stands 
for  a  social  self-consciousness- — a  consciousness  in  each 
citizen,  of  the  state  of  the  aggregate  of  citizens.  Among 
ourselves  there  has,  happily,  been  of  late  years  a  remarka- 
ble growth  of  this  social  self-consciousness ;  and  we  believe 
that  to  this  is  chiefly  ascribable  the  impression,  that  com- 
mercial mal-practices  are  increasing.  -^ 

Such  facts  as  have  come  down  to  us  respecting  the 
trade  of  past  times,  confirm  this  view.  In  his  "  Complete 
English  Tradesman,"  Defoe  mentions,  among  other  man- 
oeuvres of  retailers,  the  false  lights  which  they  introduced 
into  their  shops,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  delusive  appear- 
ances to  their  goods.  He  comments  on  the  "  shop  rheto- 
rick,"  the  "  flux  of  falsehoods,"  which  tradesmen  habitually 
uttered  to  their  customers ;  and  quotes  their  defence  as 
being  that  they  could  not  live  without  lying.  He  says, 
too,  that  there  was  scarce  a  shopkeeper  who  had  not  a 
bag  of  spurious  or  debased  coin,  from  which  he  gave 
change  whenever  he  could;  and  that  men,  even  the  most 
honest,  triumphed  in  their  skill  in  getting  rid  of  bad 
money.  These  facts  show  that  the  mercantile  morals  of 
that  day  were,  at  any  rate,  not  better  than  ours ;  and  if 
we  call  to  mind  the  numerous  Acts  of  Parliament  passed 
in  old  times  to  prevent  frauds  of  all  kinds,  we  perceive 


138  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

the  like  implication.  As  much  may,  indeed,  be  safely  in- 
ferred from  the  general  state  of  society. 

When,  reign  after  reign,  governments  debased  the 
coinage,  the  moral  tone  of  the  middle  classes  could  scarcely 
have  been  higher  than  now.  Among  generations  whose 
sympathy  with  the  claims  of  fellow-creatures  was  so  weak, 
that  the  slave-trade  was  not  only  thought  justifiable,  but 
the  initiator  of  it  was  rewarded  by  permission  to  record 
the  feat  in  his  coat  of  arms ;  it  is  hardly  possible  that  men 
respected  the  claims  of  their  fellow-citizens  more  than  at 
present.  Times  characterized  by  an  administration  of  jus- 
tice so  inefficient,  that  there  were  in  London  nests  of 
criminals  who  defied  the  law,  and  on  all  high  roads  rob- 
bers who  eluded  it,  cannot  have  been  distinguished  by 
just  mercantile  dealings.  While,  conversely,  an  age 
which,  like  ours,  has  seen  so  many  equitable  social 
changes  thrust  on  the  legislature  by  public  opinion,  is 
very  unlikely  to  be  an  age  in  which  the  transactions 
between  individuals  have  been  growing  more  inequitable. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  undeniable  that  many  of  the 
dishonesties  we  have  described  are  of  modern  origin. 
Not  a  few  of  them  have  become  established  during 
the  last  thirty  years;  and  others  are  even  now  aris- 
ing. How  are  the  seeming  contradictions  to  be  recon- 
ciled? 

We  believe  the  reconciliation  is  not  difficult.  It  lies 
in  the  fact  that  while  the  great  and  direct  frauds  have 
been  diminishing,  the  small  and  indirect  frauds  have  been 
increasing :  alike  in  variety  and  in  number.  And  this 
admission  we  take  to  be  quite  consistent  with  the  opinion 
that  the  standard  of  commercial  morals  is  higher  than  it 
was.  For,  if  we  omit,  as  excluded  from  the  question,  the 
penal  restraints — religious  and  legal — and  ask  what  is  the 
ultimate  moral  restraint  to  the  aggression  of  man  on  man; 
we  find  it  to  be — sympathy  with  the  pain  inflicted.     Now 


COtmTEE-TENDENCJIES.  139 

the  keenness  of  the  sympathy,  depending  on  the  vividness 
with  which  this  pain  is  realized,  varies  with  the  conditions 
of  the  case.  It  may  be  active  enough  to  check  misdeeds 
which  will  cause  great  suffering ;  and  yet  not  be  active 
enough  to  check  misdeeds  which  will  cause  but  slight 
annoyance.  While  sufficiently  acute  to  prevent  a  man 
ft-om  doing  that  which  will  entail  immediate  injury  on  a 
given  person ;  it  may  not  be  sufficiently  acute  to  prevent 
him  from  doing  that  which  will  entail  remote  injuries  on 
unknown  persons.  And  we  find  the  facts  to  agree  with 
this  deduction,  that  the  moral  restraint  varies  according 
to  the  clearness  with  which  the  evil  consequences  are  con- 
ceived. Many  a  one  who  would  shrink  from  picking  a 
pocket  does  not  scruple  to  adulterate  his  goods ;  and  he 
who  never  dreams  of  passing  base  coin,  will  yet  be  a  party 
to  joint-stock-bank  deceptions.  Hence,  as  we  say,  the 
multiplication  of  the  more  subtle  and  complex  forms  of 
fraud,  is  consistent  with  a  general  progress  in  morality ; 
provided  it  is  accompanied  with  a  decrease  in  the  grosser 
forms  of  fraud. 

But  the  question  which  most  concerns  us  is,  not  whether 
the  morals  of  trade  are  better  or  worse  than  they  have 
been  ?  but  rather — why  are  they  so  bad  ?  t^^hy  in  this 
civilized  state  of  ours,  is  there  so  much  that  betrays  the 
cunning  selfishness  of  the  savage  ?^Why,  after  the  care- 
ful inculcations  of  rectitude  during  eaucation,  cdmes  there 
in  after-life  all  this  knavery  ?  Why,  in  spite  of  all  the 
exhortations  to  which  the  commercial  classes  listen  every 
Sunday,  do  they  next  morning  recommence  their  evil 
deeds  ?  What  is  this  so  potent  agency  which  almost 
neutralizes  the  discipline  of  education,  of  law,  of  re- 
ligion ? 

Various  subsidiary  causes  that  might  be  assigned, 
must  be  passed  over,  that  we  may  have  space  to  deal  with 


140  THE  MOEALS  OF  TRADE. 

the  chief  cause.  In  an  exhaustive  statement,  something 
would  have  to  be  said  on  the  credulity  of  consumers, 
which  leads  them  to  believe  in  representations  of  impossi- 
ble advantages ;  and  something,  too,  on  their  greediness, 
which,  ever  prompting  them  to  look  for  more  than  they 
ought  to  get,  encourages  the  sellers  to  offer  delusive  bar 
gains.  The  increased  difficulty  of  living  consequent  on 
growing  pressure  of  population,  might  perhaps  come  in  as 
a  part  cause;  and  that  greater  cost  of  bringing  up  a  family, 
which  results  from  the  higher  standard  of  education,  might 
be  added.  But  all  these  are  relatively  insignificant.  The 
great  inciter  of  these  trading  mal-practices  is,  intense  de- 
sire for  wealth.  And  if  we  ask — Why  this  intense  desire  ? 
the  reply  is-pt  results  from  the  indiscriminate  respect 
paid  to  wealm\ 

To  be  distinguished  from  the  common  herd — to  be 
somebody — to  make  a  name,  a  position— this  is  the  univer- 
sal ambition ;  and  to  accumulate  riches,  is  alike  the  surest 
and  the  easiest  way  of  fulfilling  this  ambition. .  Very  early 
in  life  all  learn  this.  At  school,  the  court  paid  to  one 
whose  parents  have  called  in  their  carriage  to  see  him,  is 
conspicuous  ;  while  the  poor  boy,  whose  insufficient  stock 
of  clothes  implies  the  small  means  of  his  family,  soon  has 
burnt  into  his  memory  the  fact  that  poverty  is  contempti- 
ble. On  entering  the  world,  the  lessons  that  may  have 
been  taught  about  the  nobility  of  self-sacrifice,  the  rever- 
ence due  to  genius,  the  admirableness  of  high  integrity, 
are  quickly  neutralized  by  experience :  men's  actions  prov- 
ing that  these  are  not  their  standards  of  respect.  It  is 
soon  perceived  that  while  abundant  outward  marks  of 
deference  from  fellow-citizens,  may  almost  certainly  be 
gained  by  directing  every  energy  to  the  accumulation  of 
property,  they  are  but  rarely  to  be  gained  in  any  other 
way ;  and  that  even  in  the  few  cases  where  they  are  other- 
wise gained,  they  are  not  given  with  entire  unreserve ;  but 


TRUE  CAUSE  OF  THE  EVIL.  141 

are  commonly  joined  with  a  more  or  less  manifest  display 
of  patronage,  m'hen,  seeing  this,  the  young  man  further 
sees  that  while  the  acquisition  of  property  is  quite  possi- 
ble with  his  mediocre  endowments,  the  acquirement  of 
distinction  by  brilliant  discoveries,  or  heroic  acts,  or  high 
achievements  in  art,  implies  faculties  and  feelings  which 
he  does  not  possess ;  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why 
he  devotes  himself  heart  and  soul  to  business.^ 

We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  men  act  on  the  consciously 
reasoned-out  conclusions  thus  indicated;  but  we  mean 
that  these  conclusions  are  the  unconsciously-formed  prod- 
ucts of  their  daily  experience.  From  early  childhood, 
the  sayings  and  doings  of  all  around  them  have  generated 
the  idea,  that  wealth  and  respectability  are  two  sides  of 
the  same  thing.  This  idea,  growing  with  their  growth, 
and  strengthening  with  their  strength,  becomes  at  last 
almost  what  we  may  call  an  organic  conviction.  And 
this  organic  conviction  it  is,  which  prompts  the  expendi- 
ture of  all  their  energies  in  money-making.  We  contend 
that  the  chief  stimulus  is  not  the  desire  for  the  wealth 
itself;  but  for  the  applause  and  position  which  the  wealth 
brings.  And  in  this  belief,  we  find  ourselves  at  one  with 
various  intelligent  traders  with  whom  we  have  talked  on 
the  matter. 

It  is  incredible  that  men  should  make  the  sacrifices, 
mental  and  bodily,  which  they  do,  merely  to  get  the 
material  benefits  which  money  purchases.  Who  would 
undertake  an  extra  burden  of  business  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  a  cellar  of  choice  wines  for  his  own  drinking  ? 
He  who  does  it,  does  it  that  he  may  have  choice  wines  to 
give  his  guests  and  gain  their  praises.  What  merchant 
would  spend  an  additional  hour  at  his  office  daily,  merely 
that  he  might  move  into  a  larger  house  in  a  better  quar- 
ter ?  In  so  far  as  health  and  comfort  are  concerned,  he 
knows  he  will  be  a  loser  by  the  exchange ;  and  would 


142  THE  M0EAL8  OF  TRADE. 

never  be  induced  to  make  it,  were  it  not  for  the  increased 
social  consideration  which  the  new  house  will  bring  him. 
Where  is  the  man  who  would  lie  awake  at  nights  devis- 
ing means  of  increasing  his  income,  in  the  hope  of  being 
able  to  provide  his  wife  with  a  carriage,  were  the  use  of 
the  carriage  the  sole  consideration  ?  It  is  because  of  the 
^dat  which  the  carriage  will  give,  that  he  enters  on  these 
additional  anxieties.  So  manifest,  so  trite,  indeed,  are 
these  truths,  that  we  should  be  ashamed  of  insisting  on 
them,  did  not  our  argument  require  it. 

For  if  the  desire  for  that  homage  which  wealth  brings, 
is  the  chief  stimulus  to  these  strivings  after  wealth ;  then 
is  the  giving  of  this  homage  (when  given,  as  it  is,  with 
but  little  discrimination)  the  chief  cause  of  the  dishonesties 
into  which  these  strivings  betray  mercantile  men.  When 
the  shopkeeper,  on  the  strength  of  a  prosperous  year  and 
favourable  prospects,  has  yielded  to  his  wife's  persuasions, 
and  replaced  the  old  furniture  with  new,  at  an  outlay 
greater  than  his  income  covers — when,  instead  of  the 
hoped-for  increase,  the  next  year  brings  a  decrease  in  his 
returns — when  he  finds  that  his  expenses  are  out-running 
his  revenue ;  then  does  he  fall  under  the  strongest  tempta- 
tion to  adopt  some  newly-introduced  adulteration  or  other 
mal-practice.  When,  having  by  display  gained  a  certain 
recognition,  the  wholesale  trader  begins  to  give  dinners 
appropriate  only  to  those  of  ten  times  his  income,  with 
other  expensive  entertainments  to  match — when,  having 
for  a  time  carried  on  this  style  at  a  cost  greater  than  he 
can  afford,  he  finds  that  he  cannot  discontinue  it  without 
giving  up  his  position :  then  is  he  most  strongly  prompted 
to  enter  into  larger  transactions;  to  trade  beyond  his 
means ;  to  seek  undue  credit ;  to  get  into  that  ever-com- 
plicating series  of  misdeeds,  which  ends  in  disgraceful 
bankruptcy.  And  if  these  are  the  facts — the  undeniable 
facts-^en  is  it  an  unavoidable  conclusion  that  the  blind 


THE  BLIND  HOMAGE  TO   WEALTH.  143 

admiration  which  society  gives  to  mere  wealth,  and  the 
display  of  wealth,  is  the  chief  source  of  these  multitudi- 
nous immoralitiesTJ 

Yes,  the  evil  is  deeper  than  appears — draws  its  nutri- 
ment from  far  below  the  surface.  This  gigantic  system 
of  dishonesty,  branching  out  into  every  conceivable  form 
of  fraud,  has  roots  that  run  underneath  our  whole  social 
fabric,  and,  sending  fibres  into  every  house,  suck  up 
strength  from  our  daily  sayings  and  doings.  In  every 
dining-room  a  rootlet  finds  food,  when  the  conversation 
turns  on  So-and-so's  successM  speculations,  his  purchase 
of  an  estate,  his  probable  worth — on  this  man's  recent 
large  legacy,  and  the  other's  advantageous  match;  for 
being  thus  talked  about  is  one  form  of  that  tacit  respect 
which  men  struggle  for.  Every  drawing-room  furnishes 
nourishment,  in  the  admiration  awarded  to  costliness — to 
silks  that  are  "  rich,"  that  is,  expensive ;  to  dresses  that 
contain  an  enormous  quantity  of  material,  that  is,  are 
expensive ;  to  laces  that  are  hand-made,  that  is,  expen- 
sive; to  diamonds  that  are  rare,  that  is,  expensive;  to 
china  that  is  old,  that  is,  expensive.  And  from  scores  of 
small  remarks  and  minutias  of  behaviour,  which,  in  all 
circles,  hourly  imply  how  completely  the  idea  of  respecta- 
bility involves  that  of  costly  externals,  there  is  drawn 
fresh  pabulum. 

We  are  all  implicated.  We  all,  whether  with  self- 
approbation  or  not,  give  expression  to  the  established 
feeling.  Even  he  who  disapproves  this  feeling,  finds  him- 
self unable  to  treat  virtue  in  threadbare  apparel  with  a 
cordiality  as  great  as  that  which  he  would  show  to  the 
same  virtue  endowed  with  prosperity.  Scarcely  a  man  is 
to  be  found  who  would  not  behave  with  more  civility  to  a 
knave  in  broadcloth  than  to  a  knave  in  fustian.  yThough 
for  the  deference  which  they  have  shown  to  the  vulgag 
rich,  or  the  dishonestly  successful,  men  afterwards  com- 


144  THE  MORALS  OF  TRADE. 

pound  with  theii*  consciences  by  privately  venting  their 
contempt ;  yet  when  they  again  come  face  to  face  with 
these  imposing  externals  covering  worthlessness,  they  do 
as  before.  And  so  long  as  imposing  worthlessness  gets 
the  visible  marks  of  respect,  while  the  disrespect  felt  for 
it  is  hidden,  it  naturally  flourishesA 

Henije,  then,  is  it  that  men  persevere  in  these  evil 
practices  which  all  condemn.  They  can  so  purchase  a 
homage,  which  if  not  genuine,  is  yet,  so  far  as  appearances 
go,  as  good  as  the  best.  To  one  whose  wealth  has  been 
gained  by  a  life  of  frauds,  what  matters  it  that  his  name 
is  in  all  circles  a  synonym  of  roguery  ?  Has  he  not  been 
conspicuously  honoured  by  being  twice  elected  mayor  of 
his  town  ?  (we  state  a  fact)  and  does  not  this,  joined  to 
the  personal  consideration  shown  him,  outweigh  in  his 
estimation  all  that  is  said  against  him :  of  which  he 
hears  scarcely  any  thing  ?  When,  not  many  years  after 
the  exposure  of  his  inequitable  dealing,  a  trader  attains  to 
the  highest  civic  distinction  which  the  kingdom  has  to 
offer ;  and  that,  too,  through  the  instiiimentality  of  those 
who  best  know  his  delinquency ;  is  not  the  fact  an  encour- 
agement to  him,  and  to  all  others,  to  sacrifice  rectitude 
to  aggrandizement  ?  If,  after  listening  to  a  sermon  that 
has  by  implication  denounced  the  dishonesties  he  has  been 
guilty  of,  the  rich  ill-doer  finds,  on  leaving  church,  that 
his  neighbours  cap  to  him ;  does  not  this  tacit  approval 
go  far  to  neutralize  the  effect  of  all  he  has  heard  ?  The 
truth  is,  that  with  the  great  majority  of  men,  the  visible 
expression  of  social  opinion  is  far  the  most  eflScient  of  in- 
centives and  restraints.  Let  any  one  who  wishes  to  esti- 
mate the  strength  of  this  control,  propose  to  himself  to 
walk  through  the  streets  in  the  dress  of  a  dustman,  or 
hawk  vegetables  from  door  to  door.  Let  him  feel,  as  he 
probably  will,  that  he  had  rather  do  something  morally 
wrong  than  commit  such  a  breach  of  usage,  and  suffer  the 


PUBLIC   OPINION  RESPONSIBLE.  145 

resulting  derision.  And  he  will  then  better  estimate  how 
powerful  a  curb  to  men  is  the  open  disapproval  of  their 
fellows ;  and  how,  conversely,  the  outward  applause  of 
their  fellows  is  a  stimulus  surpassing  all  others  in  intensity. 
Fully  realizing  which  facts,  he  will  see  that  the  immorali- 
ties of  trade  are  in  great  part  traceable  to  an  immoral 
public  opinion. 

Let  none  infer,  from  what  has  been  said,  that  the  pay- 
ment of  respect  to  wealth  rightly  acquired  and  rightly 
used,  is  deprecated.  In  its  original  meaning,  and  in  due 
degree,  the  feeling  which  prompts  such  respect  is  good. 
Prim*arily,  wealth  is  the  sign  of  mental  power ;  and  this 
is  always  respectable.  To  have  honestly-acquired  prop- 
erty, implies  intelligence,  energy,  self-control;  and  these 
are  worthy  of  the  homage  that  is  indirectly  paid  to  them 
by  admiring  their  results.  Moreover,  the  good  adminis- 
tration and  increase  of  inherited  property,  also  requires 
its  virtues ;  and  therefore  demands  its  share  of  approba- 
tion. And  besides  being  applauded  for  their  display  of 
faculty,  men  who  gain  and  increase  wealth  are  to  be  ap- 
plauded as  public  benefactors.  For  he  who  as  manufac- 
turer or  merchant,  has,  without  injustice  to  others,  realized 
a  fortune,  is  thereby  proved  to  have  discharged  his  func- 
tions better  than  those  who  have  been  less  successful. 
By  greater  skill,  better  judgment,  or  more  economy  than 
his  competitors,  he  has  afforded  the  public  greater  advan- 
tages. His  extra  profits  are  but  a  share  of  the  extra  pro- 
duce obtained  by  the  same  expenditure :  the  other  share 
going  to  the  consumers.  And  similarly,  the  landowner 
who,  by  judicious  outlay,  has  increased  the  value  (that  is, 
the  productiveness)  of  his  estate,  has  thereby  added  to  the 
stock  of  national  capital.  By  all  means,  then,  let  the  right 
acquisition  and  proper  use  of  wealth,  have  their  due  share 
of  admiration. 

But  that  which  we  condemn  as  the  chief  cause  of  com- 
7 


146  THE  M0EAL8  OF  TEADE. 

mercial  dishonesty,  is  the  indiscriminate  admiration  of 
wealth — an  admiration  that  has  little  or  no  reference  to 
the  character  of  the  possessor.  When,  as  very  generally 
happens,  the  external  signs  are  reverenced,  where  they 
signify  no  internal  worthiness — nay,  even  where  they 
cover  internal  unwoi-thiness ;  then  does  the  feeling  become 
vicious.  It  is  this  idolatry  which  worships  the  symbol 
apart  from  the  thing  symbolized,  that  is  the  root  of  all 
these  evils  we  have  been  exposing.  So  long  as  men  pay 
homage  to  those  social  benefactors  who  have  grown  rich 
honestly,  they  give  a  wholesome  stimulus  to  industry  ;^ut 
when  they  accord  a  share  of  their  homage  to  those  social 
malefactors  who  have  grown  rich  dishonestly,  then  do  they 
foster  corruption — then  do  they  become  accomplices  in  all 
these  frauds  of  commerce.'^ 

As  for  remedy,  it  manifestly  follows  that  there  is  none 
save  a  purified  public  opinion.  When  that  abhoiTence 
which  society  now  shows  to  direct  theft,  is  shown  to  theft 
of  all  degrees  of  indirectness ;  then  will  these  mercantile 
vices  disappear.  When  not  only  the  trader  who  adulter- 
ates or  gives  short  measure,  but  also  the  merchant  who 
overtrades,  the  bank-director  who  countenances  an  ex- 
aggerated report,  and  the  railway-director  who  repudi- 
ates his  guarantee,  come  to  be  regarded  as  of  the  same 
genus  as  the  pickpocket,  and  are  treated  with  like  dis- 
dain; then  will  the  morals  of  trade  become  what  they 
should  be. 

We  have  little  hope,  however,  that  any  such  higher 
tone  of  public  opinion  will  shortly  be  reached.  The  pres- 
ent condition  of  things  appears  to  be,  in  great  measure,  a 
necessary  accompaniment  of  our  present  phase  of  progress. 
Throughout  the  civilized  world,  especially  in  England, 
and  above  all  in  America,  social  activity  is  almost  wholly 
expended  in  material  development.    To  subjugate  Nature, 


THE  GEEAT  TASK  OF  THE  AGE.         147 

and  bring  the  powers  of  production  and  distribution  to 
their  highest  perfection,  is  the  task  of  our  age ;  and  proba- 
bly of  many  future  ages.  And  as  in  times  when  national 
defence  and  conquest  were  the  chief  desiderata,  military 
achievement  was  honoured  above  all  other  things ;  so  now, 
when  the  chief  desideratum  is  industrial  growth,  honour 
is  most  conspicuously  given  to  that  which  generally  indi- 
cates the  aiding  of  industrial  growth.  The  English  na- 
tion at  present  displays  what  we  may  call  the  commercial 
diathesis ;  and  the  undue  admiration  for  wealth  appears 
to  be  its  concomitant-t^,  relation  still  more  conspicuous  in 
the  worship  of  " the  almighty  dollar "  by  the  AmericansTl 
And  while  the  commercial  diathesis,  with  its  accompany- 
ing standard  of  distinction,  continues,  we  fear  the  evils  we 
have  been  delineating  can  be  but  partially  cured.  It 
seems  hopeless  to  expect  that  men  will  distinguish  be- 
tween that  wealth  which  represents  personal  superiority 
and  benefits  done  to  society,  from  that  which  does  not. 
The  symbols,  the  externals,  have  all  the  world  through 
swayed  the  masses;  and  must  long  continue  to  do  so. 
Even  the  cultivated,  who  are  on  their  guard  against  the 
bias  of  associated  ideas,  and  try  to  separate  the  real  from 
the  seeming,  cannot  escape  the  influence  of  current  opinion. 
We  must,  therefore,  content  ourselves  with  looking  for  a 
slow  amelioration. 

fSomething,  however,  may  even  now  be  done  by  vigor- 
ous*^rotest  against  adoration  of  mere  successj  And  it  is 
important  that  it  should  be  done,  considering  how  this 
vicious  sentiment  is  being  fostered.  "When  we  have  one 
of  our  leading  moralists  preaching,  with  increasing  vehem- 
ence, the  doctrine  of  santification  by  force — when  we  are 
told  that  while  a  selfishness  troubled  with  qualms  of  con- 
science is  contemptible,  a  selfishness  intense  enough  to 
trample  down  every  thing  in  the  unscrupulous  pursuit  of 
its  ends,  is  worthy  of  all  admiration — when  we  find  that 


148  THE  MOEALS  OF  TRADE. 

if  it  be  sufficiently  great,  power,  no  matter  of  what  kind 
or  how  directed,  is  held  up  for  our  reverence ;  we  may- 
fear  lest  the  prevalent  applause  of  mere  success,  together 
with  the  commercial  vices  which  it  stimulates,  should  be 
increased  rather  than  diminished.  (Not  at  all  by  this  hero- 
worship  grown  into  brute-worship,  is  society  to  be  made 
better ;  but  by  exactly  the  opposite — ^by  a  stem  criticism 
of  the  means  through  which  success  has  been  achieved ; 
and  by  according;^  honour  to  the  higher  and  less  selfish 
modes  of  activityj 

And  happily  the  signs  of  this  more  moral  public  opin- 
ion are  already  showing  themselves.  \Jt  is  becoming  a 
tacitly-received  doctrine  that  the  rich  should  not,  as  in  by- 
gone times,  spend  their  lives  in  personal  gratification; 
but  should  devote  them  to  the  general  welfare.!^  Year  by 
year  is  the  improvement  of  the  people  occupying  a  larger 
share  of  the  attention  of  the  upper  classes.  Year  by  year 
are  they  voluntarily  devoting  more  and  more  energy  to  fur- 
thering the  material  and  mental  progress  of  the  masses. 
And  those  among  them  who  do  not  join  in  the  discharge 
of  these  high  functions,  are  beginning  to  be  looked  upon 
with  more  or  less  contempt  by  their  own  order.  This 
latest  and  most  hopeful  fact  in  human  history — this  new 
and  better  chivalry — promises  to  evolve  a  higher  standard 
of  honour ;  and  so  to  ameliorate  many  evils :  among  others 
those  which  we  have  detailed.  When  wealth  obtained 
by  illegitimate  means  inevitably  brings  nothing  but  dis- 
grace— when  to  wealth  rightly  acquired  is  accorded  only 
its  due  share  of  homage,  while  the  greatest  homage  is 
given  to  those  who  consecrate  their  energies  and  their 
means  to  the  noblest  ends ;  then  may  we  be  sure  that, 
along  with  other  accompanying  benefits,  the  morals  of 
trade  will  be  greatly  purified. 


IV. 
PERSONAL  BEAUTY. 


IT  is  a  commonly-expressed  opinion  that  beauty  of  char- 
acter and  beauty  of  aspect  are  unrelated.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  reconcile  myself  to  this  opinion.  In- 
deed, even  those  who  hold  it  do  so  in  a  very  incomplete 
sense;  for  it  is  observable  that  notwithstanding  their 
theory  they  continue  to  manifest  surprise  when  they  find  a 
mean  deed  committed  by  one  of  noble  countenance — a  fact 
clearly  implying  that  underneath  their  professed  induction 
lies  a  still  living  conviction  at  variance  with  it. 

Whence  this  conviction  ?  How  is  it  that  a  belief  in 
the  connection  between  worth  and  beauty  primarily  exists 
in  all  ?  It  cannot  be  innate.  Must  it  not,  then,  be  from 
early  experiences  ?  And  must  it  not  be  that  in  those  who 
continue  to  believe  in  this  connection,  spite  of  their  reason- 
ings, the  early  and  wide  experiences  outweigh  the  later 
and  exceptional  ones  ?  /    . 

Avoiding,  however,  the  metaphysics  of  the  question, 
let  us  consider  it  physiologically. 

Those  who  do  not  admit  the  relationship  between  men- 
tal and  facial  beauty,  usually  remark  that  the  true  connec- 
tion is  between  character  and  expression.  While  they 
doubt,  or  rather  deny,  that  the  permanent  forms  of  the 


150  PEESONAL  BEAUTY. 

features  are  in  any  way  indices  of  the  forms  of  the  mind, 
they  assert  that  the  transitory  forms  of  the  features  are 
such  indices.  These  positions  are  inconsistent.  For  is  it 
not  clear  that  the  transitory  forms,  by  perpetual  repeti- 
tion, register  themselves  on  the  face,  and  produce  perma- 
nent forms  ?  Does  not  an  habitual  frown  by-and-by  leave 
ineffaceable  marks  on  the  brow  ?  Is  not  a  chronic  scom- 
iulness  presently  followed  by  a  modified  set  in  the  angles 
of  the  mouth  ?  Does  not  that  compression  of  the  lips 
significant  of  great  determination,  often  stereotype  itself, 
and  so  gjve  a  changed  form  to  the  lower  part  of  the  face  ? 
And  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  doctrine  of  hereditary 
transmission,  must  there  not  be  a  tendency  to  the  reap- 
pearance of  these  modifications  as  new  types  of  feature  in 
the  offspring  ^  In  brief,  may  we  not  say  that  expression 
is  feature  in  the  making  /  and  that  if  expression  means 
something,  the  form  of  feature  produced  by  it  means 
something  ? 

Possibly  it  will  be  urged,  in  reply,  that  changes  of 
expression  affect  only  the  muscles  and  skin  of  the  face ; 
that  the  permanent  marks  they  produce  can  extend  but  to 
these ;  that,  nevertheless,  the  beauty  of  a  face  is  mainly 
dependent  upon  the  form  of  its  bony  framework ;  that 
hence,  in  this  chief  respect,  there  cannot  take  place  such 
modifications  as  those  described ;  and  that,  therefore,  the 
relationship  of  aspect  of  character,  while  it  may  hold  in 
the  details,  does  not  hold  in  the  generals. 

The  rejoinder  is,  that  the  framework  of  the  face  is 
modified  by  modifications  in  the  tissues  which  cover  it. 
It  is  an  established  doctrine  in  physiology,  that  through- 
out the  skeleton  the  greater  or  less  development  of  bones 
is  dependent  on  the  greater  or  less  development,  that  is, 
on  the  exercise,  of  the  attached  muscles.  Hence,  perma- 
nent changes  in  the  muscular  adjustments  of  the  face  will 
be  followed  by  permanent  changes  in  its  osseous  structure. 


EXPEESSION  OF  FACIAL  FEATURES.  151 

Kot  to  dwell  in  general  statements,  however,  which 
with  most  weigh  but  little,  I  will  cite  a  few  cases  in  which 
the  connection  between  organic  ugliness  and  mental  in- 
feriority, and  the  converse  connection  between  organic 
beauty  and  comparative  perfection  of  mind,  are  distinctly 
traceable. 

It  will  be  admitted  that  the  projecting  jaw,  character- 
istic of  the  lower  human  races,  is  a  facial  defect — is  a  trait 
which  no  sculptor  would  give  to  an  ideal  bust.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  an  ascertained  fact  that  prominence  of  jaw 
is  associated  in  the  mammalia  generally  with  comparative 
lack  of  intelligence.  This  relationship,  it  is  true,  does  not 
hold  good  uniformly.  It  is  not  a  direct  but  an  indirect 
one  ;  and  is  thus  liable  to  be  disturbed.  Nevertheless,  it 
holds  good  among  all  the  higher  tribes ;  and  on  inquiry 
we  shall  see  why  it  must  hold  good.  In  conformity  with 
the  great  physiological  law  that  organs  develop  in  pro- 
portion as  they  are  exercised,  the  jaws  must  be  relatively 
large  where  the  demands  made  upon  them  are  great ;  and 
must  diminish  in  size  as  their  functions  become  less  numer- 
ous and  less  onerous.  Now,  in  all  the  lower  classes  of 
animals  the  jaws  are  the  sole  organs  of  manipulation — are 
used  not  only  for  mastication,  but  for  seizing,  carrying, 
gnawing,  and,  indeed,  for  every  thing  save  locomotion, 
which  is  the  solitary  office  performed  by  the  limbs.  Ad- 
vancing upwards,  we  find  that  the  fore-limbs  begin  to  aid 
the  jaws,  and  gradually  to  relieve  them  of  part  of  their 
duties.  Some  creatures  use  them  for  burrowing ;  some, 
as  the  felines,  for  striking  ;  many,  to  keep  steady  the  prey 
they  are  tearing ;  and  when  we  arrive  at  the  quadrumana, 
whose  fore-limbs  possess  so  complete  a  power  of  prehen- 
sion that  objects  can  not  only  be  seized,  but  carried  and 
pulled  to  pieces  by  them,  we  find  that  the  jaws  are  used 
for  little  else  than  to  break  down  the  food.  Accompany- 
ing this  series  of  changes,  we  see  a  double  change  in  the 


152  PEESONAL  BEAUTY. 

form  of  the  head.  The  increased  complexity  of  the  limbs, 
the  greater  variety  of  actions  they  perform,  and  the  more 
numerous  perceptions  they  give,  imply  a  greater  develop- 
ment of  the  brain  and  of  its  bony  envelope.  At  the  same 
time,  the  size  of  the  jaws  has  diminished  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  diminution  of  their  functions.  And  by  this 
simultaneous  protrusion  of  the  upper  part  of  the  cranium 
and  recession  of  its  lower  part,  what  is  called  the  facial 
angle  has  increased. 

Well,  these  coordinate  changes  in  functions  and  forms 
have  continued  during  the  civilization  of  the  human  race. 
On  contrasting  the  European  and  the  Papuan,  we  see  that 
what  the  one  cuts  in  two  with  knife  and  fork,  the  other 
tears  with  his  jaws  ;  what  the  one  softens  by  cooking,  the 
other  eats  in  its  hard,  raw  state  ;  the  bones  which  the  one 
utilizes  by  stewing,  the  other  gnaws ;  and  for  sundry  of 
the  mechanical  manipulations  which  the  one  has  tools  for, 
the  other  uses  his  teeth.  From  the  Bushman  state  up- 
wards, there  has  been  a  gradual  increase  in  the  complex- 
ity of  our  appliances.  We  not  only  use  our  hands  to  save 
our  jaws,  but  we  make  implements  to  save  our  hands ;  and 
in  our  engine  factories  may  be  found  implements  for  the 
making  of  implements.  This  progression  in  the  arts  of 
life  has  had  intellectual  progression  for  its  necessary  cor- 
relative. Each  new  complication  requires  a  new  incre- 
ment of  intelligence  for  its  production  ;  and  the  daily  use 
of  it  developes  the  intelligence  of  all  still  further.  Thus 
that  simultaneous  protrusion  of  the  brain  and  recession  of 
the  jaws,  which  among  lower  animals  has  accompanied  in- 
crease of  skill  and  sagacity,  has  continued  during  the  ad- 
vance of  Humanity  from  barbarism  to  civilization ;  and 
has  been  throughout,  the  result  of  a  discipline  involving 
increase  of  mental  power.  And  so  it  becomes  manifest 
that  there  exists  an  organic  relationship  between  that  pro- 
tuberance of  the  jaws  which  we  consider  ugly,  and  a  cer- 
tain inferiority  of  nature. 


DEFECTS  OF  FACIAL  FEATUEES.         153 

Again,  that  lateral  jutting-out  of  the  cheek-bones, 
which  similarly  characterizes  the  lower  races  of  men,  and 
which  is  similarly  thought  by  us  a  detraction  from  beauty, 
is  similarly  related  to  lower  habits  and  lower  intelligence. 
The  jaws  are  closed  by  the  temporal  muscles  ;  and  these 
are  consequently  the  chief  active  agents  in  biting  and 
mastication.  In  proportion  as  the  jaws  have  much  work, 
and  correspondingly  large  size,  must  the  temporal  muscles 
be  massive.  But  the  temporal  muscles  pass  between  the 
skull  and  the  zygomatic  arches,  or  lateral  parts  of  the 
cheek-bones.  Consequently,  where  the  temporal  muscles 
are  massive,  the  spaces  between  the  zygomatic  arches  and 
the  skull  must  be  great ;  and  the  lateral  projection  of  the 
zygomatic  arches  great  also,  as  we  see  it  in  the  Mongolian 
and  other  uncivilized  races.  Like  large  jaws,  therefore, 
of  which  it  is  an  accompaniment,  excessive  size  of  the 
cheek-bones  is  both  an  ugliness  and  an  index  of  imper- 
fection. 

Certain  other  defects  of  feature,  between  which  and 
mental  defects  it  is  not  thus  easy  to  trace  the  connection, 
may  yet  be  fairly  presumed  to  have  such  connection  in 
virtue  of  their  constant  coexistence  with  the  foregoing 
ones :  alike  in  the  uncivilized  races  and  in  the  young  of 
the  civilized  races.  Peculiarities  of  face  which  we  find 
regularly  associated  with  those  just  shown  to  be  signifi- 
cant of  intellectual  inferiority,  and  which  like  them  disap- 
pear as  barbarism  grows  into  civilization,  may  reasonably 
be  concluded  to  have  like  them  a  psychological  meaning. 
Thus  is  it  with  depression  of  the  bridge  of  the  nose ; 
which  is  a  characteristic  both  of  barbarians  and  of  our 
babes,  possessed  by  them  in  common  with  the  higher 
quadrumana.  Thus,  also,  is  it  with  that  forward  opening 
of  the  nostrils,  which  renders  them  conspicuous  in  a  front 
view  of  the  face — a  trait  alike  of  infants,  savages,  and 
apes.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  wide-spread  alae  to 
V* 


154  PERSONAL  BEAUTY. 

the  nose,  of  great  width  between  the  eyes,  of  long  mouth, 
of  large  mouth — ^indeed  of  all  those  leading  peculiarities 
of  feature  which  are  by  general  consent  called  ugly. 

And  then  mark  how,  conversely,  the  type  of  face  usu- 
ally admitted  to  be  the  most  beautiful,  is  one  that  is  not 
simply  free  from  these  peculiarities,  but  possesses  opposite 
ones.  In  the  ideal  Greek  head,  the  forehead  projects  so 
much,  and  the  jaws  recede  so  much,  as  to  render  the  facial 
angle  larger  than  we  ever  find  it  in  fact.  The  cheek-bones 
are  so  small  as  scarcely  to  be  traceable.  The  bridge  of 
the  nose  is  so  high  as  to  be  almost  or  quite  in  a  line  with 
the  forehead.  The  alse  of  the  nose  join  the  face  with  but 
little  obliquity.  In  the  front  view  the  nostrils  are  almost 
invisible.  The  mouth  is  small,  and  the  upper  lip  short, 
and  deeply  concave.  The  outer  angles  of  the  eyes,  instead 
of  keeping  the  horizontal  line,  as  is  usual,  or  being  directed 
upwards,  as  in  the  Mongolian  type,  are  directed  slightly 
downwards.  And  the  form  of  the  brow  indicates  an  unu- 
sually large  frontal  sinus — a  characteristic  entirely  absent 
in  children,  in  the  lowest  of  the  human  races,  and  in  the 
allied  genera. 

If,  then,  recession  of  the  forehead,  protuberance  of  the 
jaws,  and  largeness  of  the  cheek-bones,  three  leading  ele- 
ments of  ugliness,  are  demonstrably  indicative  of  mental 
inferiority — if  such  other  facial  defects  as  great  width  be- 
tween the  eyes,  flatness  of  the  nose,  spreading  of  its  alae, 
frontward  opening  of  the  nostrils,  length  of  the  mouth, 
and  largeness  of  the  lips,  are  habitually  associated  with 
these,  and  disappear  along  with  them  as  intelligence  in- 
creases, both  in  the  race  and  in  the  individual ;  is  it  not  a 
fair  inference  that  all  such  faulty  traits  of  feature  signify 
deficiencies  of  mind?  If,  further,  our  ideal  of  human 
beauty  is  characterized  not  simply  by  the  absence  of  these 
traits,  but  by  the  presence  of  opposite  ones — if  this  ideal, 
as  found  in  sculptures  of  the  Greek  gods,  has  been  used 


FORMS  OF  FEATITEE  AND  FORMS  OF  MIND.  155 

to  represent  superhuman  power  and  intelligence — and  if 
the  race  so  using  it  were  themselves  distinguished  by  a 
mental  superiority,  which,  if  we  consider  their  disadvan- 
tages, produced  results  unparalleled ;  have  we  not  yet 
stronger  reasons  for  concluding  that  the  chief  components 
of  beauty  and  ugliness  are  severally  connected  with  per- 
fection and  imperfection  of  mental  nature  ?  And  when, 
lastly,  we  remember  that  the  variations  of  feature  consti- 
tuting expression  are  confessedly  significant  of  character  f 
— when  we  remember  that  these  tend  by  repetition  to 
organize  themselves,  to  affect  not  only  the  skin  and  mus- 
cles but  the  bones  of  the  face,  and  to  be  transmitted  to 
offspring — when  we  thus  find  that  there  is  a  psychological 
meaning  alike  in  each  passing  adjustment  of  the  features, 
in  the  marks  that  habitual  adjustments  leave,  in  the  marks 
inherited  from  ancestors,  and  in  those  main  outlines  of  the 
facial  bones  and  integuments  indicating  the  type  or  race  ; 
are  we  not  almost  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  all  forms 
of  feature  are  related  to  forms  of  mind,  and  that  we  con- 
sider them  admirable  or  otherwise  according  as  the  traits 
of  na^ture  they  imply  are  admirable  or  otherwise  ? 

In  the  extremes  the  relationship  is  demonstrable. 
That  transitory  aspects  of  face  accompany  transitory 
mental  states,  and  that  we  consider  these  aspects  ugly  or 
beautiful  according  as  the  mental  states  they  accompany 
are  ugly  or  beautiful,  no  one  doubts.  That  those  perma- 
nent and  most  marked  aspects  of  face  dependent  on  the 
bony  framework,  accompany  those  permanent  and  most 
marked  mental  states  which  express  themselves  in  barbar- 
ism and  civilization ;  and  that  we  consider  as  beautiful 
those  which  accompany  mental  superiority,  and  as  ugly 
those  which  accompany  mental  inferiority,  is  equally  cer- 
tain. And  if  this  connection  unquestionably  holds  in  the 
extremes — if,  as  judged  by  average  facts,  and  by  our 
half-instinctive  convictions,  it  also  holds  more  or  less  visi- 


166  PERSONAL   BEAUTY. 

bly  in  intermediate  cases,  it  becomes  an  almost  irresistible 
induction,  that  the  aspects  which  please  us  are  the  outward 
correlatives  of  inward  perfections,  while  the  aspects  which 
displease  us  are  the  outward  correlatives  of  inward  imper- 
fections. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  when  tested  in  detail  this  induc- 
tion seems  not  to  be  borne  out.  I  know  that  there  are 
often  grand  natures  behind  plain  faces ;  and  that  fine 
countenances  frequently  hide  small  souls.  But  these 
anomalies  do  not  destroy  the  general  truth  of  the  law,  any 
more  than  the  perturbations  of  planets  destroy  the  general 
ellipticity  of  their  orbits.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  may  be 
readily  accounted  for.  There  are  many  faces  spoiled  by 
having  one  part  perfectly  developed  while  the  rest  of  the 
features  are  ordinary  ;  others  by  the  misproportion  of  feat- 
ures that  are  in  themselves  good ;  others,  again,  by  de- 
fects of  skin,  which,  though  they  indicate  defects  of  vis- 
ceral constitution,  have  manifestly  no  relationship  to  the 
higher  parts  of  the  nature.  Moreover,  the  facts  that  have 
been  assigned  afford  reason  for  thinking  that  the  leading 
elements  of  facial  beauty  are  not  directly  associated  with 
moral  characteristics,  but  with  intellectual  ones — are  the 
results  of  long-continued  civilized  habits,  long  cessation 
of  domestic  barbarism,  long  culture  of  the  manipulative 
powers ;  and  so  may  coexist  with  emotional  traits  not  at 
all  admirable.  It  is  true  that  the  highest  intellectual  mani- 
festations imply  a  good  balance  of  the  higher  feelings ;  but 
it  is  also  true  that  great  quickness,  great  sagacity  in  ordi- 
nary affairs,  great  practical  skill,  can  be  possessed  without 
these,  and  very  frequently  are  so.  The  prevalent  beauty 
of  the  Italians,  coexisting  though  it  does  with  a  low  moral 
state,  becomes,  on  this  hypothesis,  reconcileable  with  the 
general  induction ;  as  do  also  many  of  the  anomalies  we 
see  around  us. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  satisfactory  explanation  to 


EFFECT  OF   MIXTUEE  OF  RACES.  157 

be  offered  than  any  of  these — an  explanation  which  I  think 
renders  it  possible  to  admit  the  seeming  contradictions 
which  the  detailed  facts  present,  and  yet  to  hold  by  the 
theory. 

All  the  civilized  races,  and  probably  also  the  uncivil- 
ized ones,  are  of  mixed  origin ;  and,  as  a  consequence, 
have  physical  and  mental  constitutions  in  which  are  min- 
gled several  aboriginal  oonstitutions  more  or  less  differing 
from  each  other.  This  heterogeneity  of  constitution  seems 
to  me  the  chief  cause  of  the  incongruities  between  aspect 
and  nature  which  we  daily  meet  with.  Given  a  pure  race, 
subject  to  constant  conditions  of  climate,  food,  and  habits 
of  life,  and  there  is  eveiy  reason  to  believe  that  between 
external  appearance  and  internal  structure  there  will  be  a 
constant  connection.  Unite  this  race  with  another  equally 
pure,  but  adapted  to  different  conditions  and  having  a 
correspondingly  different  physique,  face,  and  morale,  and 
there  will  occur  in  the  descendants,  not  a  homogeneous 
mean  between  the  two  constitutions,  but  a  seemingly  ir- 
regular combination  of  characteristics  of  the  one  with 
characteristics  of  the  other — one  feature  traceable  to  this 
race,  a  second  to  that,  and  a  third  uniting  the  attributes 
of  both ;  while  in  disposition  and  intellect  there  will  be 
found  a  like  medley  of  the  two  originals. 

The  fact  that  the  forms  and  qualities  of  any  offspring 
are  not  a  mean  between  the  fonns  and  qualities  of  its 
parents,  but  a  mixture  of  them,  is  illustrated  in  every 
family.  The  features  and  peculiarities  of  a  child  are  sepa- 
rately referred  by  observers  to  father  and  mother  respec- 
tively— ^nose  and  mouth  to  this  side ;  colour  of  the  hair 
and  eyes  to  that — this  moral  peculiarity  to  the  first ;  this 
intellectual  one  to  the  second — and  so  with  contour  and 
idiosyncrasies  of  body.  Manifestly  if  each  organ  or  fac- 
ulty in  a  child  was  an  average  of  the  two  developments 
of  such  organ  or  faculty  in  the  parents,  it  would  follow 


168  PERSONAL  BEAUTY. 

that  all  brothers  and  sisters  should  be  alike  ;  or  should,  at 
any  rate,  differ  no  more  than  their  parents  differed  from 
year  to  year.  So  far,  however,  from  finding  that  this  is 
the  case,  we  find  not  only  that  great  irregularities  are  pro- 
duced by  intermixture  of  traits,  but  that  there  is  no  con- 
stancy in  the  mode  of  intermixture,  or  the  extent  of  varia- 
tion produced  by  it. 

This  imperfect  union  of  parental  constitutions  in  the 
constitution  of  offspring,  is  yet  more  clearly  illustrated  by 
the  reappearance  of  peculiarities  traceable  to  bygone  gen- 
erations. Forms,  dispositions,  and  diseases,  possessed  by 
distant  progenitors,  habitually  come  out  from  time  to  time 
in  descendants.  Some  single  feature,  or  some  solitary 
tendency,  will  again  and  again  show  itself,  after  being 
apparently  lost.  It  is  notoriously  thus  with  gout,  scrof- 
ula, and  insanity.  On  some  of  the  monumental  brasses  in 
our  old  churches  are  engraved  heads  having  traits  still 
persistent  in  the  same  families.  "Wherever,  as  in  portrait 
galleries,  a  register  of  ancestral  faces  has  been  kept,  the 
same  fact  is  more  or  less  apparent.  The  pertinacity  with 
which  particular  characteristics  reproduce  themselves  is 
well  exemplified  in  America,  where  traces  of  negro  blood 
can  b*  detected  in  the  finger  nails,  when  no  longer  visible 
in  the  complexion.  Among  breeders  of  animals  it  is  well 
known  that,  after  several  generations  in  which  no  visible 
modifications  were  traceable,  the  effects  of  a  cross  will 
suddenly  make  their  appearance.  In  all  which  facts  we 
see  the  general  law  that  an  organism  produced  from  two 
organisms  constitutionally  different,  is  not  a  homogeneous 
mean  ;  but  is  made  up  of  separate  elements,  taken  in  varia- 
ble manner  and  proportion  from  the  originals. 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  the 
Agricultural  Society  were  published  some  facts  respecting 
the  mixture  of  French  and  English  races  of  sheep,  bearing 
collaterally  on  this  point.      Sundry  attempts   had  been 


RELATION   OF   CONSTITUTIONS.  159 

made  to  improve  the  poor  French  breeds  by  'our  fine 
English  ones.  For  a  long  time  these  attempts  failed. 
The  hybrids  bore  no  trace  of  their  English  ancestry ;  but 
were  as  dwarfed  and  poverty-stricken  as  their  French 
dams.  Eventually  the  cause  of  failure  was  found  to  lie 
in  the  relative  heterogeneity  and  homogeneity  of  the  two 
constitutions.  The  superior  English  sheep  were  of  mixjed 
race ;  the  French  sheep,  though  inferior,  were  of  pure 
race ;  and  the  compound,  imperfectly  coordinated  consti- 
tution of  the  one  could  not  maintain  itself  against  the 
simple  and  completely-balanced  constitution  of  the  other. 
This,  at  first  an  hypothesis,  was  presently  demonstrated. 
French  sheep  of  mixed  constitution  having  been  obtained 
by  uniting  two  of  the  pure  French  breeds,  it  was  found 
that  these  hybrid  French  sheep,  when  united  with  the 
English  ones,  produced  a  cross  in  which  the  English  char- 
acteristics were  duly  displayed.  Now,  this  inability  of  a 
mixed  constitution  to  stand  its  ground  against  an  unmixed 
one,  quite  accords  with  the  above  induction.  An  unmixed 
constitution  is  one  in  which  all  the  organs  are  exactly  fit- 
ted to  each  other — are  perfectly  balanced  ;  the  system,  as 
a  whole,  is  in  stable  equilibrium.  A  mixed  constitution, 
on  the  contrary,  being  made  up  of  organs  belonging  to 
two  separate  sets,  cannot  have  them  in  exact  fitness — can- 
not have  them  perfectly  balanced ;  and  a  system  in  com- 
paratively unstable  equilibrium  results.  But  in  proportion 
to  the  stability  of  the  equilibrium  will  be  the  power  to 
resist  disturbing  forces.  Hence,  when  two  constitutions, 
in  stable  and  unstable  equilibrium  respectively,  become 
disturbing  forces  to  each  other,  the  unstable  one  will  be 
overthrown,  and  the  stable  one  will  assert  itself  unchanged. 
This  imperfect  coordination  of  parts  in  a  mixed  con- 
stitution, and  this  consequent  instability  of  its  equilib- 
rium, are  intimately  connected  with  the  vexed  question 
of  genera,  species,  and  varieties ;  and,  with  a  view  partly 


160  PEESONAL  BEAUTY. 

to  the  intrinsic  interest  of  this  question,  and  partly  to  the 
further  elucidation  of  the  topic  in  hand,  I  must  again 
digress. 

The  current  physiological  test  of  distinct  species  is  the 
production  of  a  non-prolific  hybrid.  The  ability  of  the 
offspring  to  reproduce  itself  is  held  to  indicate  that  its 
parents  are  of  the  same  species,  however  widely  they  may 
differ  in  appearance ;  and  its  inability  to  do  this  is  taken 
as  proof  that,  nearly  allied  as  its  parents  may  seem, 
they  are  distinct  in  kind.  Of  late,  however,  facts  have 
been  accumulating  that  tend  more  and  more  to  throw 
doubt  on  this  generalization.  Cattle  breeders  have  estab- 
lished it  as  a  general  fact,  that  the  offspring  of  two  differ- 
ent breeds  of  sheep  or  oxen  dwindle  away  in  a  few  gen- 
erations if  allied  with  themselves  ;  and  that  a  good  result 
can  be  obtained  only  by  mixing  them  with  one  or  other 
of  the  original  breeds — a  fact  implying  that  what  is  true 
of  so-called  species,  is,  under  a  modified  form,  true  of  va- 
rieties also.  The  same  phenomena  are  observable  in  the 
mixtures  of  different  races  of  men.  They,  too,  it  is  al- 
leged, cannot  maintain  themselves  as  separate  varieties ; 
but  die  out  unless  there  is  intermarriage  with  the  origi- 
nals. In  brief,  it  seems  that  the  hybrids  produced  from 
two  distinct  races  of  organisms  may  die  out  in  the  first, 
second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  <fcc.,  generation,  according  as 
the  constitutional  difference  of  the  races  is  greater  or  less. 

Now,  the  experience  of  the  French  sheep-breeders, 
above  quoted,  suggests  a  rationale  of  these  various  results. 
For  if  it  be  true  that  an  organism  produced  by  two  unlike 
organisms  is  not  a  mean  between  them,  but  a  mixture  of 
parts  of  the  one  with  parts  of  the  other — if  it  be  true  that 
these  parts  belonging  to  two  different  sets  are  of  necessity 
imperfectly  coordinated;  then  it  becomes  manifest  that 
in  proportion  as  the  difference  between  the  parent  organ- 
isms is  greater  or  less,  the  defects  of  coordination  in  the 


CONGBUTTY  OF  THE  PAEENTAL  ELEMENTS.  161 

offspring  will  be  greater  or  less.  Whence  it  follows,  that 
according  to  the  degree  of  organic  incongruity  between 
the  parents,  we  may  have  every  gradation  in  the  offspring, 
from  a  combination  of  parts  so  incongruous  that  it  will 
not  work  at  all,  up  to  a  combination  complete  enough  to 
subsist  permanently  as  a  race. 

And  this  is  just  what  we  find  in  fact.  Between  organ- 
isms widely  differing  in  character,  no  intermediate  organ- 
ism is  possible.  When  the  difference  is  less,  a  non-prolific 
hybrid  is  produced — an  organism  so  badly  coordinated  as 
to  be  capable  only  of  incomplete  life.  When  the  differ- 
ence is  still  less,  there  results  an  organism  capable  of  re- 
producing itself;  but  not  of  bequeathing  to  its  offspring 
complete  constitutions.  And  as  the  degrees  of  difference 
are  further  diminished,  the  incompleteness  of  constitution 
is  longer  and  longer  in  making  its  appearance ;  until  we 
come  to  those  varieties  of  the  same  species  which  differ 
so  slightly  that  their  offspring  are  as  permanent  as  them- 
selves. Even  in  these,  however,  the  organic  equilibrium 
seems  less  perfect ;  as  illustrated  in  the  case  I  have  quoted. 
And  in  connection  with  this  inference,  it  would  be  inter- 
esting to  inquire  whether  pure  constitutions  are  not  supe- 
rior to  mixed  ones,  in  their  power  of  maintaining  the  bal- 
ance of  vital  functions  under  disturbing  conditions.  Is  it 
not  a  fact  that  the  pure  breeds  are  hardier  than  the  mixed 
ones  ?  Are  not  the  mixed  ones,  though  superior  in  size, 
less  capable  of  resisting  unfavourable  influences — extremes 
of  temperature,  bad  food,  &c.  ?  And  is  not  the  like  true 
of  mankind  ? 

Returning  to  the  topic  in  hand,  it  is  manifest  that  these 
facts  and  reasonings  serve  further  to  enforce  the  general 
truth,  that  the  offspring  of  two  organisms  not  identical  in 
constitution  is  a  heterogeneous  mixture  of  the  two,  and 
not  a  homogeneous  mean  between  them. 

If,  then,  bearing  in  mind  this  truth,  we  remember  the 


162  PERSONAL  BEAUTY. 

composite  character  of  the  civilized  races — the  mingling 
in  ourselves,  for  example,  of  Celt,  Saxon,  !N'orman,  Dane, 
with  sprinklings  of  other  tribes ;  if  we  consider  the  com- 
plications of  constitution  that  have  arisen  from  the  union 
of  these,  not  in  any  uniform  manner,  but  with  utter  irreg- 
ularity; and  if  we  recollect  that  the  incongruities  thus 
produced  pervade  the  whole  nature,  mental  and  bodily — 
nervous  tissue  and  other  tissues ;  we  shall  see  that  there 
must  exist  in  all  of  us  an  imperfect  correspondence  be- 
tween parts  of  the  organism  that  are  really  related ;  and 
that  as  one  manifestation  of  this,  there  must  be  more  or 
less  of  discrepancy  between  the  features  and  those  parts 
of  the  nervous  system  with  which  they  have  a  physiologi- 
cal connection. 

And  if  this  be  so,  then  the  difficulties  that  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  belief  that  beauty  of  character  is  related  to 
beauty  of  face  are  considerably  diminished.  It  becomes 
possible  at  once  to  admit  that  plainness  may  coexist  with 
nobility  of  nature,  and  fine  features  with  baseness ;  and 
yet  to  hold  that  mental  and  facial  perfection  are  funda- 
mentally connected,  and  will,  when  the  present  causes  of 
incongruity  have  worked  themselves  out,  be  ever  found 
united. 


REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 


#> 


SHAKSPEARE'S  simile  for  adversity— 
Which,  like  the  toad,  ugly  and  venomous, 
Wears  yet  a  precious  jewel  in  his  head, 
might  fitly  be  used  also  as  a  simile  for  a  disagreeable 
truth.  Repulsive  as  is  its  aspect,  the  hard  fact  which  dis- 
sipates a  cherished  illusion,  is  presently  found  to  contain 
the  germ  of  a  more  salutary  belief  The  experience  of 
every  one  furnishes  instances  in  which  an  opinion  long 
shrunk  from  as  seemingly  at  variance  with  all  that  is 
good,  but  finally  accepted  as  irresistible,  turns  out  to  be 
fraught  with  benefits.  It  is  thus  with  self-knowledge : 
much  as  we  dislike  to  admit  our  defects,  we  find  it  better 
to  know  and  guard  against,  than  to  ignore  them.  It  is 
thus  with  changes  of  creed :  alarming  as  looks  the  reason- 
ing by  which  superstitions  are  overthrown,  the  convic- 
tions to  which  it  leads  prove  to  be  healthier  ones  than  those 
they  superseded.  ^And  it  is  thus  with  political  enlighten- 
ment :  men  eventually  see  cause  to  thank  those  who  pull 
to  pieces  their  political  air-castles ;  hateful  as  their  antago- 
nism once  seemed.  Moreover,  not  only  is  it  always  better 
to  believe  truth  than  error ;  but  the  repugnant-looking 
facts  are  ever  found  to  be  parts  of  something  far  more  per- 


164  EEPEESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

feet  and  beautiful  than  the  ideal  which  they  dispelled : 
the  actuality  always  transcends  the  dream.  /To  the  many 
illustrations  of  this  which  might  be  cited,  we  shall  pres- 
ently add  another. 

Zit  is  a  conviction  almost  universally  entertained  here 
in  England,  that  our  method  of  making  and  administering 
laws  possesses  every  virtue.)  Prince  Albert's  unlucky  say- 
ing that  "  Representative  Government  is  on  its  trial,"  is 
vehemently  repudiated :  we  consider  that  the  trial  has 
long  since  ended  in  our  favour  on  all  the  counts.  Partly 
from  ignorance,  partly  from  the  bias  of  education,  partly 
from  that  patriotism  which  leads  the  men  of  each  nation 
to  pride  themselves  in  their  own  institutions,  we  have  an 
unhesitating  belief  in  the  entire  superiority  of  our  form  of 
political  organization.  (Yet  there  is  evidence  that  it  has 
not  a  few  apparently  serious  defectsjl^  Unfriendly  critics 
can  point  out  vices  that  are  manifestly  inherent.  And  if 
we  may  believe  the  defenders  of  despotism,  these  vices 
are  fatal  to  its  efficiency. 

Now  instead  of  denying  or  blinking  these  allegations, 
it  would  be  much  wiser  candidly  to  examine  them — to  in- 
quire whether  they  are  true ;  and  if  true,  what  they  im- 
ply. If,  as  most  of  us  are  so  confident,  government  by 
representatives  is  better  than  any  other,  we  can  afford 
patiently  to  listen  to  all  adverse  remarks :  believing  that 
they  are  either  invalid,  or  that  if  valid  they  do  not  essen- 
tially tell  against  its  merits.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  if 
our  political  system  is  well  founded,  this  crucial  criticism 
will  serve  but  to  bring  out  its  worth  more  clearly  than 
ever ;  and  to  give  us  better  conceptions  of  its  nature,  its 
meaning,  its  purpose.  Let  us,  then,  banishing  for  the 
nonce  all  prepossessions,  and  taking  up  a  thoroughly 
antagonistic  point  of  view,  set  down  without  mitigation 
its  many  vices,  flaws,  and  absurdities. 


COMPLEXTTT   OF  POLITICAL  MACHINEET.  165 

^  (Is  it  not  manifest  on  the  face  of  it,  that  a  ruling  body- 
made  up  of  many  individuals,  who  differ  in  character, 
education,  and  aims,  who  belong  to  classes  having  more 
or  less  antagonistic  ideas  and  feelings,  and  who  are 
severally  swayed  by  the  special  opinions  of  the  districts 
deputing  them — is  it  not  manifest  that  such  a  body  must 
be  a  cumbrous  apparatus  for  the  management  of  public 
affairs  ^^  When  we  devise  a  machine  to  perform  any 
operation,  we  take  care  that  its  parts  are  as  few  as  possi- 
ble ;  that  they  are  adapted  to  their  respective  ends ;  that 
they  are  properly  joined  with  one  another;  and  that  they 
work  smoothly  to  their  common  purpose.  <^Our  political 
machine,  however,  is  constructed  upon  directly  opposite 
principles,  (its  parts  are  extremely  numerous :  multiplied, 
indeed,  beyond  all  reason)  (They  are  not  severally  chosen 
as  specially  qualified  for  particular  functions ;  but  are 
mostly  chosen  without  reference  to  particular  functions^ 
(No  care  is  taken  that  they  shall  fit  well  together^  on  the 
contrary,  our  arrangements  are  such  that  they  are  certain 
not  to  fit.  (^And  that,  as  a  consequence,  they  do  not  and 
cannot  act  in  harmony ,)is  a  fact  nightly  demonstrated  to 
all  the  world.  In  trutn,  had  the  problem  been  to  find  an 
appliance  for  the  slow  and  bungling  transaction  of  busi- 
ness, it  could  scarcely  have  been  better  solved,  flmmense 
hindrance  results  from  the  mere  multiplicity  of  parts ;  a 
further  immense  hindrance  results  from  their  incongruity ; 
yet  another  immense  hindrance  results  from  the  frequency 
with  which  they  are  changed ;  while  the  greatest  hin- 
drance of  all  results  from  the  want  of  subordination  of 
the  parts  to  their  functions — from  the  fact  that  the  per- 
sonal welfare  of  the  legislator  is  not  bound  up  with  the 
efficient  performance  of  his  political  duty,  but  is  often 
totally  at  variance  with  the  performance  of  his  political 
duty.)  y 
/    These  are  defects  of  a  kind  that  do  not  admita 


166  EEPKESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

They  are  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  our  institutions ; 
and  they  cannot  fail  to  produce  disastrous  mismanage- 
ment. ■'  If  proofs  of  this  be  needed,  they  may  be  furnished 
in  abundance,  both  from  the  current  history  of  our  cen- 
tral representative  government,  and  from  that  of  local 
ones,  public  and  private — from  that  of  municipal  corpora- 
tions, boards  of  health,  boards  of  guardians,  mechanics' 
and  literary  institutions,  and  societies  of  all  kinds :  the 
universality  of  the  evils  showing  that  they  are  not  acci- 
dental but  intrinsic'  Let  us,  before  going  on  to  contem- 
plate these  evils  as  displayed  on  a  great  scale  in  our  legis- 
lature, glance  at  some  of  them  in  their  simpler  and  smaller 
manifestations. 

"We  will  not  dwell  upon  the  comparative  inefficiency 
of  deputed  administration  in  all  mercantile  affiiii's.  The 
untrustworthiness  of  management  by  proxies,  might  be 
afresh  illustrated  by  the  many  recent  joint-stock-bank 
catastrophies :  the  recklessness  and  dishonesty  of  mlers 
whose  interests  are  not  one  with  those  of  the  concern 
they  control,  being  in  these  cases  conspicuously  displayed. 
Or  we  could  enlarge  on  the  same  truth  as  exhibited  in 
the  doings  of  railway  boards :  instancing  the  frequent 
malversations  proved  against  directors;  the  carelessness 
which  has  permitted  Robson  and  Redpath  frauds;  the 
rashness  perseveringly  shown  in  making  unprofitable 
branches  and  extensions.  But  facts  of  this  kind  are 
sufficiently  familiar.  :^1  men  are  convinced  that  for 
manufacturing  and  commercial  ends,  management  by 
many  partially-interested  directors,  is  immensely  inferior 
to  management  by  a  single  wholly-interested  owner.   -'' 

Let  us  pass,  then,  to  less  notorious  examples.  Mechan- 
ics' institutions  will  supply  our  first.  The  theory  of  these 
is  plausible  enough.  Artisans  wanting  knowledge,  and 
benevolent  middle-class  people  wishing  to  help  them  to  it, 
constitute  the  raw  material.     By  uniting  their  means  they 


INSTITUTIOKS.  167 

propose  to  obtain  literary  and  other  advantages,  which 
else  would  be  beyond  their  reach.  And  it  is  concluded 
that,  being  all  interested  in  securing  the  proposed  objects, 
and  the  governing  body  being  chosen  out  of  their  number, 
the  results  cannot  fail  to  be  such  as  were  intended.  In 
most  cases,  however,  the  results  are  quite  otherwise.  In- 
difference, stupidity,  party-spirit,  and  religious  dissension, 
nearly  always  thwart  the  efforts  of  the  promoters.  It  is 
thought  good  policy  to  select  as  president  some  local 
notability ;  probably  not  distinguished  for  wisdom,  but 
whose  donation  or  prestige  more  than  counter-balances 
his  defect  in  this  respect.  Vice-presidents  are  chosen  with 
the  same  view :  a  clergyman  or  two  ;  some  neighbouring 
squires,  if  they  can  be  had ;  an  ex-mayor ;  several  alder- 
men; half  a  dozen  manufacturers  and  wealthy  tradesmen; 
and  a  miscellaneous  complement.  While  the  committee, 
mostly  elected  more  because  of  their  position  or  popularity 
than  their  intelligence  or  fitness  for  cooperation,  exhibit 
similar  incongruities. 

Causes  of  dissension  quickly  arise.  A  book  much 
wished  for  by  the  mass  of  the  members,  is  tabooed,  be- 
cause ordering  it  would  offend  the  clerical  party  in  the 
institution.  Regard  for  the  prejudices  of  certain  magis- 
trates and  squires  who  figure  among  the  vice-presidents, 
forbids  the  engagement  of  an  otherwise  desirable  and  pop- 
ular lecturer,  whose  political  and  religious  opinions  are 
somewhat  extreme.  The  selection  of  newspapers  and 
magazines  for  the  reading-room,  is  a  fruitful  source  of  dis- 
putes. Should  some,  thinking  it  would  be  a  great  boon  to 
those  for  whom  the  institution  was  expressly  established, 
propose  to  open  the  reading-room  on  Sundays,  there  arises 
a  violent  fight ;  ending,  perhaps,  in  the  secession  of  some 
of  the  defeated  party. 

The  question  of  amusements,  again,  furnishes  a  bone 
of  contention.     Shall  the  institution  exist  solely  for  in- 


168  REPEESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

struction,  or  shall  it  add  gratification  ?  The  refreshment- 
question,  also,  is  apt  to  be  raised,  and  to  add  to  the  other 
causes  of  difference/  In  short,  the  stupidity,  prejudice, 
party-spirit,  and  squabbling,  are  such  as  eventually  to 
drive  away  in  disgust  those  who  should  have  been  the 
administrators  ;  and  to  leave  the  control  in  the  hands  of  a 
clique,  who  pursue  some  humdrum  middle  course,  satisfy- 
ing nobody.  Instead  of  that  prosperity  which  would 
probably  have  been  achieved  under  the  direction  of  one 
good  man-of-business,  whose  welfare  was  bound  up  with 
its  success,  the  institution  loses  its  prestige,  and  dwindles 
away :  ceases  almost  entirely  to  be  what  was  intended — a 
mechanics'  institution ;  and  becomes  little  more  than  a 
middle-class  lounge,  kept  up  not*  so  much  by  the  perma- 
nent adhesion  of  its  members,  as  by  the  continual  addition 
of  new  ones  in  place  of  the  old  ones  constantly  falling  off. 
Meanwhile,  the  end  originally  proposed  is  fulfilled,  so  far 
as  it  gets  fulfilled  at  all,  by  private  enterpiise.  k  Cheap 
newspapers  and  cheap  periodicals,  provided  by  publishers 
having  in  view  the  pockets  and  tastes  of  the  working- 
classes  ;  coffee-shops  and  penny  reading-rooms,  set  up  by 
men  whose  aim  is  profit ;  are  the  instruments  of  the  chief 
proportion  of  such  culture  as  is  going  on. 

In  higher-class  institutions  of  the  same  order — in  Athe- 
naeums, Philosophical  Societies,  etc. — the  like  inefficiency 
of  representative  government  is  very  generally  displayed. 
Quickly  following  the  vigour  of  early  enthusiasm,  come 
class  and  sectarian  differences,  the  final  supremacy  of  a 
party,  bad  management,  apathy.  7  Subscribers  complain 
they  cannot  get  what  they  want ;  and  one  by  one  desert 
to  private  book-clubs  or  to  Mudie. 

(  Turning  from  non-political  to  political  institutions,  we 
might,  had  we  space,  draw  many  illustrations  from  the 
doings  of  the  old  poor-law  authorities,  or  those  of  modern 
boards  of  guardians ;  but  omitting  these  and  others  such, 


WORKING   OF  MUNICIPAL   CORPORATIONS.  169 

we  will,  among  local  governments,  confine  ourselves  to 
the  reformed  municipal  corporations. 

If,  leaving  out  of  sight  all  other  evidences,  and  for- 
getting that  they  are  newly-organized  bodies  into  which 
corruption  has  scarcely  had  time  to  creep,  we  were  to 
h'udge  of  these  municipal  corporations  by  the  town-im- 
provements they  have  effected^  we  might  pronounce  them 
successful.  ->  But,  even  without  insisting  on  the  fact  that 
such  improvements  are  more  due  to  the  removal  of  obstruc- 
tions, and  to  that  same  progressive  spirit  which  has  estab- 
lished railways  and  telegraphs,  than  to  the  positive  virtues 
of  the  civic  governments ;  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  the  exe- 
cution of  numerous  public  works  is  by  no  means  an  ade- 
quate test.  With  power  of  raising  funds  limited  only  by  a 
rebellion  of  ratepayers,  it  is  easy  in  prosperous,  increasing 
towns,  to  make  a  display  of  efficiency.  The  proper  ques- 
tions to  be  asked  are^r— Do  municipal  elections  end  in 
the  choice  of  the  fittest  men  that  are  to  be  found  ?  Does 
the  resulting  administrative  body,  perform  well  and 
economically  the  work  that  devolves  on  it  ?  And  does  it 
show  sound  judgment  in  refraining  from  needless  or  im- 
proper work  ?  To  these  questions  the  answers  are  by  no 
means  satisfactory.  / 

^  Town-councils  are  not  conspicuous  for  either  intelli- 
gence or  high  character.  On  the  contrary,  they  consist 
of  a  very  large  proportion  of  ciphers,  interspersed  with  a 
few  superior  men.  Indeed,  there  are  competent  judges 
who  think  that,  on  the  average,  their  members  are  inferior 
to  those  of  the  old  close  corporations  they  superseded. 
As  all  the  world  knows,  the  choice  turns  mainly  on  politi- 
cal opinions.  Z^  The  first  question  respecting  any  candidate 
is,  not  whether  he  has  great  knowledge,  judgment,  or 
business-faculty — not  whether  he  has  any  special  aptitude 
for  the  duty  to  be  discharged ;  but  whether  he  is  Whig  or 
Tory.  Even  supposing  his  politics  to  be  approved,  his 
8 


170  KEPBESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

nomination  still  does  not  depend  chiefly  on  his  proved 
uprightness  or  capacity ;  but  much  more  on  his  friendly 
relations  with  the  dominant  clique/  A  number  of  the 
corporation  magnates,  habitually  meeting  probably  at  the 
chief  hotel,  and  there  held  together  as  much  by  the  broth- 
erhood of  conviviality  as  by  that  of  opinion,  discuss  the 
merits  of  all  whose  names  are  before  the  public,  and 
decide  which  are  the  most  suitable.  ^This  gin-and-water 
caucus  it  is,  which  practically  determines  the  selection  of 
candidates ;  and,  by  consequence,  the  elections.  >  Those 
who  will  succumb  to  leadership — those  who  will  merge 
their  private  opinions  in  the  policy  of  their  party,  of 
course  have  the  preference.  C  Men  too  independent  for  this 
— too  far-seeing  to  join  in  the  shibboleth  of  the  hour, 
or  too  refined  to  mix  with  the  "jolly  good  fellows"  who 
thus  rule  the  town,  are  shelved;  notwithstanding  that 
they  are,  above  all  others,  fitted  for  oflice.  Partly  from 
this  underhand  influence,  and  partly  from  the  consequent 
disgust  which  leads  them  to  decline  standing  if  asked,  the 
best  men  are  generally  not  in  the  governing  body/  It  is 
notorious  that  in  London,  the  most  respectable  merchants 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  local  government.  And 
in  New  York,  "the  exertions  of  its  better  citizens  are  still 
exhausted  in  private  accumulation,  while  the  duties  of 
administration  are  left  to  other  hands."  It  catinot  then 
be  asserted  that  in  town-government,  the  representative 
system  succeeds  in  bringing  the  ablest  and  most  honour- 
able men  to  the  top. ' 

The  efficient  and  economical  discharge  of  duties  is,  of 
course,  hindered  by  this  inferiority  of  the  deputies  chosen ; 
and  it  is  yet  further  hindered  by  the  persistent  action  of 
party  and  personal  motives.  Not  whether  he  knows  well 
how  to  handle  a  level,  but  whether  he  voted  for  the  popu- 
lar candidate  at  the  last  parliamentary  election,  is  the 
question  on  which  may,  and  sometimes  does,  hang  the 


HOW  THE  CHOICE  OF  MEN  IS   DETERMINED.  171 

choice  of  a  town-surveyor ;  and  if  sewers  are  ill  laid  out, 
it  is  a  natural  consequence.  When,  a  new  public  edifice 
having  been  decided  on,  competition  designs  are  adver- 
tised for ;  and  when  the  designs,  ostensibly  anonymous 
but  really  identifiable,  have  been  sent  in ;  T.  Square,  Esq., 
who  has  an  influential  relative  in  the  corporation,  makes 
sure  of  succeeding,  and  is  not  disappointed:  albeit  his 
plans  are  not  those  which  would  have  been  chosen  by  any 
one  of  the  judges,  had  the  intended  edifice  been  his  own. 
Brown,  who  has  for  many  years  been  on  the  town-council, 
and  is  one  of  the  dominant  clique,  has  a  son  who  is  a  doc- 
tor ;  and  when,  in  pursuance  of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  an 
officer  of  health  is  to  be  appointed.  Brown  privately  can- 
vasses his  fellow-councillors,  and  succeeds  in  persuading 
them  to  elect  his  son ;  though  his  son  is  by  no  means  the 
fittest  man  the  place  can  furnish.  Similarly  with  the  choice 
of  tradesmen  to  execute  work  for  the  town.  A  public 
clock  that  is  frequently  getting  out  of  order,  and  Board- 
of-Health  water-closets  which  disgust  those  who  have 
them  (we  state  facts),  sufficiently  testify  that  stupidity, 
favouritism,  or  some  sinister  influence,  is  ever  causing  mis- 
management.^ The  choice  of  inferior  representatives,  and 
by  them  of  inferior  employes,  joined  with  private  interest 
and  divided  responsibility,  inevitably  prevent  the  dis- 
charge of  duties  from  being  satisfactory*. 
/  Moreover,  the  extravagance  which  is  now  becoming  a 
notorious  vice  of  municipal  bodies,  is  greatly  increased  by 
the  practice  cf  undertaking  things  which  they  ought  not 
to  undertake ;  and  the  incentive  to  do  this  is,  in  many 
cases,  traceable  to  the  representative  origin  of  the  body. 
The  system  of  compounding  with  landlords  for  municipal 
rates,  leads  the  lower  class  of  occupiers  into  the  error  that 
town-burdens  do  not  fall  on  them ;  and  they  therefore 
approve  of  an  expenditure  which  seemingly  gives  them 
gratis  advantages.  ^^  As  they  form  the  mass  of  the  consti- 


1Y2  EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

tuency,  lavishness  becomes  a  popular  policy ;  and  popu- 
larity-hunters vie  with  each  other  in  bringing  forward 
new  and  expensive  projects.  Here  is  a  councillor  who, 
having  fears  about  his  next  election,  proposes  an  exten- 
sive scheme  for  public  gardens — a  scheme  which  many 
who  disapprove  do  not  oppose,  because  they,  too,  bear  in 
mind  the  next  election.  There  is  another  councillor,  who 
keeps  a  shop,  and  who  raises  and  agitates  the  question  of 
baths  and  wash-houses ;  very  well  knowing  that  his  trade 
is  not  likely  to  suffer  from  such  a  course.^  And  so  in 
other  cases :  Ithe  small  direct  interest  which  each  member 
of  the  corporation  has  in  economical  administration,  is 
antagonized  by  so  many  indirect  interests  of  other  kinds, 
that  he  is  not  likely  to  be  a  good  guardian  of  the  public 
pursed)  .  .  I 

/(Thus,  neither  in  respect  of  the  deputies  chosen,  the 
efficient  performance  of  their  work,  nor  the  avoidance  of 
unfit  work,  can  the  governments  of  our  towns  be  held 
satisfactory^y  And  if  in  these  recently-formed  bodies  the 
defects  are  so  conspicuous,  still  more  conspicuous  are  they 
where  they  have  ha<3-trme  to  grow  to  their  full  magnitude : 
witness  the  case  of  New  York.  According  to  the  Times 
correspondent  in  that  city,  the  New  York  people  pay 
"  over  a  million  and  a  half  sterling,  for  which  they  have 
badly-paved  streets,  a  police  by  no  means  as  efficient  as  it 
should  be,  though  much  better  than  formerly,  the  greatest 
amount  of  dirt  north  of  Italy,  the  poorest  cab-system  of 
any  metropolis  in  the  world,  and  only  unsheltered  wooden 
piers  for  the  discharge  of  merchandise." 

And  now,  having  glanced  at  the  general  bearings  ©f 
the  question  in  these  -minor  cases,  let  us  take  the'major 
case  of  oui|\central  govemmen^ji  and  in  connection  with  it, 
pursue  the  inquiry  more  closely.  Here  the  inherent  faults 
of  the  representative  system  are  still  more  clearly  dis- 


THE  BEST  MEN  NOT  SELECTED.  1Y3 

played.  /The  greater  multiplicity  of  rulers  involves 
greater  cumbrousness,  greater  confusion  and  delay^  Dif- 
ferences of  class,  of  aims,  of  prejudices,  are  both  m'ger  in 
number  and  wider  in  degree ;  and  hence  arise  (dissensions 
still  more  multiplied/*  The  direct  effect  which  each  legis- 
lator is  likely  to  experience  from  the  working  of  any  par- 
ticular measure,  is  usually  very  small  and  remote ;  while 
the  indirect  influences  that  sway  him,  are,  in  this  above 
all  other  cases,  numerous  and  strong ;  whence  follows  a 
marked  tendency  to  neglect  public  welfare  for  private 
advantage.  But  let  us  set  out  from  the  beginning — with 
the  constituencies. 

The  representative  theory  assumes  that  if  a  number  of 
citizens,  deeply  interested  as  they  all  are  in  good  govern- 
ment, be  endowed  with  political  power,  they  will  choose 
the  wisest  and  best  men  for  govemorsy  Seeing  how 
greatly  they  must  suffer  from  bad  administration  of  pub- 
lic affairs  and  benefit  from  good,  it  is  considered  self-evi- 
dent that  they  must  have  the  will  to  select  proper  repre- 
sentatives; and  it  is  further  taken  for  granted  that 
average  common  sense  gives  the  ability  to  select  proper 
representatives.  How  does  experience  bear  out  these 
assumptions  ?  Does  it  not  to  a  great  degree  negative 
them? 

(  "We(find  several  considerable  classes  of  electors  who 
have  little  or  no  will  in  the  matter.^  Not  a  few  of  those 
on  the  register  pique  themselves  on  taking  no  part  in  poli- 
tics— claim  credit  for  having  the  sense  not  to  meddle  with 
things  that  do  not  concern  them.  Many  others  there  are 
whose  interests  in  the  choice  of  a  member  of  Parliament 
are  so  slight,  that  they  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to 
vote.  A  notable  proportion,  too,  shopkeepers  especially, 
care  so  little  about  the  result,  that  their  votes  are  deter- 
mined by  their  wishes  to  please  their  chief  patrons.  In 
the  minds  of  a  yet  larger  class,  small  sums  of  money,  or 


174  EEPBESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

even  ad  libitum  supplies  of  beer,  outweigb  any  desires 
they  have  to  use  their  political  powers  independently. 
Those  who  adequately  recognize  the  importance  of  hon- 
estly exercising  their  judgments  in  the  selection  of  legis- 
lators, and  who  give  conscientious  votes,  form  but  a  mi- 
nority ;  and  the  election  usually  hangs  less  upon  their  wills 
than  upon  the  indirect  and  illegitimate  influences  which 
sway  the  rest. 

Then,  again,  as  to  intelligence.  Even  supposing  that 
the  mass  of  electors  have  a  sufficiently  decided  will  to  choose 
the  best  rulers,  what  evidence  have  we  of  their  ability  f 
Is  picking  out  the  wisest  man  among  them,  a  task  within 
the  range  of  their  capacities  ?  Let  any  one  listen  to  the 
conversation  of  a  farmer's  market-table,  and  then  answer 
how  much  he  finds  of  that  wisdom  which  is  required  to 
discern  wisdom  in  others.  Or  let  him  read  the  clap-trap 
speeches  made  from  the  hustings  with  a  view  of  pleasing 
constituents,  and  then  estimate  the  penetration  of  those 
who  are  to  be  so  pleased.  Even  among  the  higher  order 
of  electors  he  will  meet  with  gross  political  ignorance — 
with  notions  that  Acts  of  Parliament  can  do  whatever  it 
is  thought  well  they  should  do ;  that  the  value  of  gold 
can  be  fixed  by  law ;  that  distress  can  be  remedied  by 
poor-laws ;  and  so  forth.  If  he  descends  a  step,  he  will 
find  in  the  still-prevalent  ideas  that  machinery  is  injurious 
to  the  working-classes,  and  that  extravagance  is  "  good 
for  trade,"  indices  of  a  yet  smaller  insight.  7  And  in  the 
lower  and  larger  class,  formed  by  those  who  think  that 
their  personal  interest  in  good  government  is  not  worth 
the  trouble  of  voting,  or  is  outbalanced  by  the  loss  of  a 
customer,  or  is  of  less  value  than  a  bribe,  he  will  perceive 
an  almost  hopeless  stupidity.  Without  going  the  length 
of  Mr.  Carlyle,  and  defining  the  people  as  "  twenty-seven 
millions,  mostly  fools,"  he  will  yet  confess  (that  they  are 
but  very  sparely  gifted  with  wisdom)  '^        ^ 


INCAPACITY  OF  SELECTION.  175 

—  That  these  should  succeed  in  choosing  from  out  their 

number  the  fittest  governors,  would  be  strange ;  and  that 
they  do  not  so  succeed  is  manifest.  Even  as  judged  by 
the  most  common-sense  tests,  their  selections  are  absurd, 
as  we  shall  shortly  see. 

.  f  It  is  a  self-evident  truth  that  we  may  most  safely  tmst 
those  whose  interests  are  identical  with  our  ownj/  and 
that  it  is  very  dangerous  to  trust  those  whose  interests 
are  antagonistic  to  our  owiy^  All  the  legal  securities  we 
take  in  our  transactions  with  each  other,  are  so  many 
recognitions  of  this  truth.  We  are  not  satisfied  with  pro- 
fessions. If  another's  position  is  such  that  he  must  be 
liable  to  motives  at  variance  with  the  promises  he  makes, 
we  take  care  by  introducing  an  artificial  motive  (the  dread 
of  legal  penalties)  to  make  it  his  interest  to  fulfil  these 
promises.  Down  to  the  asking  for  a  receipt,  our  daily 
business-habits  testify  that,  in  consequence  of  the  prevail- 
ing selfishness,  it  is  extremely  imprudent  to  expect  men 
to  regard  the  claims  of  others  equally  with  their  own ; — 
all  asseverations  of  good  faith  notwithstanding.  Now,  it 
might  have  been  thought  that  even  the  modicum  of  sense 
possessed  by  the  majority  of  electors,  would  have  led  them 
to  recognize  this  fact  in  the  choice  of  their  representatives. 
But  they  show  a  total  disregard  of  it. 

U  While  the  theory  of  our  Constitution,  in  conformity 
with  this  same  fact,  assumes  that  the  three  divisions  com- 
posing the  Legislature  will  severally  pursue  each  its  own 
ends — while  our  history  shows  that  Monarch,  Lords,  and 
Commons,  ha'oe  all  along  more  or  less  conspicuously  done 
this ;  our  electors  manifest  by  their  votes,  the  belief  that 
their  interests  will  be  as  well  cared  for  by  members  of  the 
titled  class  as  by  members  of  their  own  class.  Though, 
in  their  determined  opposition  to  the  Reform-Bill,  the 
aristocracy  showed  how  greedy  they  were,  not  only  of 
their  legitimate  power,  but  of  their  illegitimate  power — 


176  KEPREBENTATIVE   GOVEENMKNT. 

though  by  the  enactment  and  pertinacious  maintenance 
of  the  Corn-Laws,  they  proved  how  little  popular  welfare 
weighed  in  the  scale  against  their  own  profit — ^though 
they  have  ever  displayed  a  watchful  jealousy  even  of  their 
smallest  privileges,  whether  equitable  or  inequitable  (as 
witness  the  recent  complaint  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
the  Mercantile  Marine  Act  calls  on  lords  of  manors  to 
show  their  titles  before  they  can  claim  the  wrecks  thrown 
on  the  shores  of  their  estates,  which  before  they  had 
always  done  by  prescription) — ^though  they  have  habit- 
ually pursued  that  self-seeking  policy  which  men  so 
placed  were  sure  to  pursue;  yet  constituencies  have 
decided  that  members  of  the  aristocracy  may  fitly  be 
chosen  as  representatives  of  the  people.  Our  present 
House  of  Commons  contains  98  Irish  peers  and  sons  of 
English  peers;  66  blood-relations  of  peers;  and  67  con- 
nections of  peers  by  marriage:  in  all,  231  members  whose 
interests  oi^sympathies,  or  both,  are  with  the  nobility 
rather  than  the  commonalty./ 

We  are  quite  prepared  to  hear  the  doctrine  implied  in 
this  criticism,  condemed  by  rose-water  politicians  as  nar- 
row and  prejudiced.  To  such  we  simply  reply,  that  they 
and  their  friends  fully  recognize  this  doctrine  when  it 
suits  them  to  do  so.  i^What  is  the  meaning  of  their  wish 
to  prevent  the  town-constituencies  from  predominating 
over  the  county-ones  ;  if  it  does  not  imply  the  belief  that 
each  division  of  the  community  wUl  consult  its  own  wel- 
fare ?  Or  what  plea  can  there  be  for  Lord  John  Russell's 
proposal  to  represent  minorities ;  unless  it  be  the  plea  that 
those  who  have  the  opportunity  will  sacrifice  the  interests 
of  others  to  their  own  ?  Or  how  shall  we  explain  the 
anxiety  of  the  upper  class  to  keep  a  tight  rein  on  the 
growing  power  of  the  lower  class,  save  from  their  con- 
sciousness that  bond  fide  representatives  of  the  lower  class 
would  be  less  regardful  of  their  privileges  than  they  are 


CLASSES   ATTEND   TO  THEIR  OWN   INTEEESTS.         lYY 

themselves  ?  The  truth  is  plain  enough,  even  for  a  child 
to  comprehend.  If  there  be  any  reason  in  the  theory  of 
the  Constitution,  then,  while  the  members  of  the  House 
of  Peers  should  belong  to  the  peerage,  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  should  belong  to  the  commonalty. 
Either  the  constitutional  theory  is  sheer  nonsense,  or  else 
the  choice  of  lords  as  representatives  of  the  people  proves 
the  folly  of  constituencies. 

But  this  folly  by  no  meaps  ends  here :  it  works  out 
other  results  quite  as  absurd.x  What  should  we  think  of  a 
man  giving  his  servants  equal  authority  with  himself  over 
the  aifairs  of  his  household  ?  Suppose  the  shareholders 
in  a  railway  company  were  to  elect,  as  members  of  their 
board  of  directors,  the  secretary,  engineer,  superintend- 
ent, traffic-manager,  and  others  such  ?  Should  we  not  be 
astonished  at  their  stupidity  ?  Should  we  not  prophesy 
that  the  private  advantage  of  officials  would  frequently 
override  the  welfare  of  the  company  ?  Yet  our  parlia- 
mentary electors  commit^  blunder  of  just  the  same  kind. 
For  what  are  military  and  naval  officers  but  servants  of 
the  nation  ;  standing  to  it  in  a  relation  like  that  in  which 
the  officers  of  a  railway-company  stand  to  the  company?^ 
Do  they  not  perform  public  work  ?  do  they  not  take  pub- 
lic pay  ?  And  do  not  their  interests  differ  from  those  of 
the  public,  as  the  interests  of  the  employed  from  those  of 
the  employer  ?  The  impropriety  of  admitting  executive 
agents  of  the  State  into  the  Legislature,  has  over  and 
over  again  thrust  itself  into  notice ;  and  in  minor  cases 
has  been  prevented  by  sundry  Acts  of  Parliament.  Enu- 
merating those  •  disqualified  for  the  House  of  Commons, 
Blackstone  says : 

"  No  person  concerned  in  the  management  of  any  duties  or 

taxes  created  since  1692,  except  the  commissioners  of  the  treasury, 

nor  any  of  the  officers  following  (viz.,  commissioners  of  prizes, 

transports,  sick  and  wounded,  wine  licenses,  navy,  and  victualling ; 

8* 


178  EEPEESENTATTVE   GOVERNMENT. 

secretaries  and  receivers  of  prizes ;  comptrollers  of  the  army  ac- 
counts ;  agents  of  regiments ;  governors  of  plantations,  end  their 
deputies ;  oflScers  of  Minorca  or  Gibraltar ;  oflficers  of  the  excise 
and  customs;  clerks  and  deputies  in  the  several  oflBces  of  the 
treasury,  exchequer,  navy,  victualling,  admiralty,  pay  of  the  army 
and  navy,  secretaries  of  state,  salt,  stamps,  appeals,  wine,  licenses, 
hackney  coaches,  hawkers  and  pedlars),  nor  any  persons  that  hold 
any  new  oflSce  under  the  crown  created  since  1705,  are  capable  of 
being  elected,  or  sitting  as  members." 

In  which  list  naval  and  military  officers  would  doubtless 
have  been  included,  had  they  not  always  been  too  power- 
ful a  body  and  too  closely  identified  with  the  dominant 
classes.  ^,  Glaring,  however,  as  is  the  impolicy  of  appoint- 
ing public  servants  to  make  the  laws ;  and  clearly  as  this 
impolicy  is  recognized  in  the  above-specified  exclusions 
from  time  to  time  enacted ;  the  people  at  large  seem  to- 
tally oblivious  of  it.  At  the  last  election  they  returned  9 
naval  officers,  46  military  officers,  and  51  retired  military 
officers,  who  in  virtue  of  education,  friendship,  and  esprit 
de  corps,  take  the  same  views  with  their  active  comrades 
— in  all  106  :  not  including  64  officers  of  militia  aod  yeo- 
manry, whose  sympathies  and  ambitions  are  in  d  consider- 
able degree  the  same.^  If  any  one  thinks  that  this  large 
infusion  of  officialism  is  of  no  consequence,  let  him  look 
in  the  division-lists. '  Let  him  inquire  how  much  it  has  had 
to  do  with  the  maintenance  of  the  purchase-system.  Let 
him  ask  whether  the  almost  insuperable  obstacles  to  the 
promotion  of  the  private  soldier,  have  not  been  strength- 
ened by  it.  Let  him  see  what  share  it  had  in  keeping  up 
those  worn-out  practices,  and  forms,  and  mis-aiTange- 
ments,  which  entailed  the  disasters  of  our  late  war.  c  Let 
him  consider  whether  the  hushing-up  of  the  Crimean  In- 
quiry, and  the  whitewashing  of  delinquents,  were  not 
aided  by  it.  /Yet,  though  abundant  experience  thus  con- 
firms what  common  sense  would  beforehand  have  prophe- 


LAWYERS  AS   LEGISLATORS.  179 

sied ;  and  though,  notwithstanding  the  late  disasters,  ex- 
posures, and  public  outcry  for  army-reform,  the  influence 
of  the  military  caste  is  so  great,  that  the  reform  has  been 
staved  off;  our  constituencies  are  stupid  enough  to  send 
to  Parliament  as  many  military  ofiicer§  as  ever  ! 

Not  even  now  have  we  reached  the  end  of  these  im- 
politic selections.  *^\The  general  principle  on  which  we 
have  been  insisting,  and  which  is  recognized  by  expound- 
ers of  the  constitution  when  they  teach  that  the  legislative 
and  executive  divisions  of  the  Government  should  be  dis- 
tinct— this  general  principle  is  yet  further  sinned  against) 
though  not  in  so  literal  a  manner.  For  though  they  dx) 
not  take  State-pay,  and  are  not  nominally  Government- 
officers,  yet,  practically(  lawyers  are  members  of  the  exec- 
utive organization,]  They  form  an  important  part  of  the 
apparatus  for  the  administration  of  justice.  By  the  work- 
ing of  this  apparatus  they  make  their  profits ;  and  their 
welfare  depends  on  its  being  so  worked  as  to  bring  them 
profits,  rather  than  on  its  being  so  worked  as  to  adminis- 
ter justice.  Exactly  as  military  officers  have  interests  dis- 
tinct from,  and  often  antagonistic  to,  the  efficiency  of  the 
army;  so,  barristers  and  solicitors  have  interests  distinct 
from,  and  often  antagonistic  t^the  simple,  cheap,  and 
prompt  enforcement  of  the  law.  / 

(And  that  they  are  habitually  swayed  by  these  antago- 
nistic interests,  is  notorious.]  It  is  not  in  human  nature 
that  they  should  be  otherwise.  So  strong  is  the  bias,  as 
sometimes  even  to  destroy  the  power  of  seeing  from  any 
other  than  the  professional  stand-point.  We  have  our- 
selves heard  a  lawyer  declaiming  on  the  damage  which 
the  County-Courts-Act  had  done  to  the  profession ;  and 
expecting  his  non-professional  hearers  to  join  him  in  con- 
demning it  therefor !  And  if,  as  all  the  world  knows, 
the  legal  conscience  is  not  of  the  tenderest,  is  it  wise  to 
depute  lawyers  to  frame  the  laws  which  they  will  be  con- 


180  EEPKESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

cerned  in  carrying  out ;  and  the  caiTying  out  of  which 
must  affect  their  private  incomes  ?  Are  barristers,  who 
constantly  take  fees  for  work  which  they  do  not  perform, 
and  attorneys,  whose  bills  are  so  often  exorbitant  that  a 
special  office  has  been  established  for  taxing  them — are 
these,  of  all  others,  to  be  trusted  in  a  position  which  would 
be  trying  even  to  the  most  disinterested  ?  I  Nevertheless, 
the  towns  and  counties  of  England  have  returned  to  the 
present  House  of  Commons  98  lawyers — some  60  of  them 
in  actual  practice,  and  the  rest  retired,  but  doubtless  re- 
taining those  class-views  acquired  during  their  professional 
careers.  ^ 

These  criticisms  on  the  conduct  of  constituencies,  do 
not  necessarily  commit  us  to  the  assertion  that  none  be- 
longing to  the  official  and  aristocratic  classes  ought  *to  be 
chosen.  Though  it  would  be  safer  to  carry  out  in  these 
important  cases,  the  general  principle  which,  as  above 
shown.  Parliament  has  itself  recognized  and  enforced  in 
unimportant  cases ;  yet  we  are  not  prepared  to  say  that 
occasional  exceptions  might  not  be  made,  on  good  cause 
being  shown.  IJsW.  we  aim  to  show  is,  the  gross  impolicy 
of  selecting  so  large  a  proportion  of  representatives  from 
classes  having  interests  different  from  those  of  the  general 
public.  That  in  addition  to  more  than  a  third  taken  from 
the  dominant  class,  who  already  occupy  one  division  of  the 
Legislature,  the  House  of  Commons  should  contain  nearly 
another  third  taken  from  the  naval,  military,  and  legal 
classes,  whose  policy,  like  that  of  the  dominant  class,  is  to 
maintain  things  as  they  are  ;  we  consider  a  decisive  proof 
of  electoral  misjudgment.  That  out  of  654  members,  of 
which  the  People's  House  now  consists,  there  should  be 
but  250  who,  as  considered  from  a  class-point  of  view,  are 
eligible  or  tolerably  eligible  (for  we  include  a  considerable 
number  who  are  more  or  less  objectionable),  is  significant 
of  any  thing  but  popular  good  sense.  /That  into  an  as- 


THE  IGNORANT   CANNOT  UNDERSTAND  THE  WISE.     181 

sembly  established  to  protect  their  interests,  the  common- 
alty of  England  should  have  sent  one-third  whose  interests 
are  the  same  as  their  own,  and  two-thirds  whose  interests 
are  at  variance  with  their  own,  proves  a  scarcely  credible 
lack  of  wisdom ;  and  seems  an  awkward  fact  for  the  repre- 
sentative theory."^ 

^If  the  intelligence  of  the  mass  is  thus  not  sufficient 
eveh  to  choose  out  men  who  by  position  and  occupation 
are  fit  representatives,  still  less  is  it  sufficient  to  choose 
out  men  who  are  the  fittest  in  character  and  capacity?  To 
see  who  will  be  liable  to  the  bias  of  private  advantage  is 
a  very  easy  thing ;  to  see  who  is  wisest  is  a  very  difficult 
thing ;  and  those  who  do  not  succeed  in  the  first  must 
necessarily  fail  in  the  last.  ^The  higher  the  wisdom,  the 
more  incomprehensible  does  it  become  by  ignorance.  It 
is  a  manifest  fact  that  the  popular  man  or  writer,  is  always 
one  who  is  but  little  in  advance  of  the  mass,  and  conse- 
quently understandable  by  them :  never  the  man  who  is 
far  in  advance  of  them,  and  out  of  their  sight.  ^  Apprecia- 
tion of  another  implies  some  community  of  thought. 
^'  Only  the  man  of  worth  can  recognize  worth  in  men. 
.  .  .  The  worthiest,  if  he  appealed  to  universal  suffrage, 

would   have  but  a  poor  chance Alas!   Jesus 

Christ,  asking  the  Jews  what  he  deserved — was  not  the 
answer,  Death  on  the  gallows  ! "  And  though  men  do  not 
now-a-days  stone  the  prophet,  they,  at  any  rate,  ignore 
him.     As  Mr.  Carlyle  says  in  his  vehement  way — 

"  If  of  ten  men  nine  are  recognizable  as  fools,  which  is  a  com- 
mon calculation,  how,  in  the  name  of  wonder,  will  you  ever  get  a 
ballot-box  to  grind  you  out  a  wisdom  from  the  votes  of  these  ten 
men  ?.....!  tell  you  a  million  blockheads  looking  authorita- 
tively into  one  man  of  what  you  call  genius,  or  noble  sense,  will 
make  nothing  but  nonsense  out  of  him  and  his  qualities,  and  his 
virtues  and  defects,  if  they  look  till  the  end  of  time." 

/^o  that,  even  were  electors  content  to  choose  the  man 


182  BEPEESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

proved  by  general  evidence  to  be  the  most  far-seeing,  and 
refrained  from  testing  him  by  the  coincidence  of  his  views 
with  their  own,  there  would  be  small  chance  of  their  hit- 
ting on  the  best.  But  judging  of  him,  as  they  do,  by 
asking  him  whether  he  thinks  this  or  that  crudity  which 
they  think,  it  is  manifest  that  they  will  fix  on  one  far  re- 
moved from  the  best.  Their  deputy  will  be  truly  repre- 
sentative ; — representative,  that  is,  of  the  average  stupid- 

And  now  let  us  look  at  the  assembly  of  representatives 
thus  chosen.  Already  we  have  noted  the  unfit  composi- 
tion of  this  assembly  as  respects  the  interests  of  its  mem- 
bers ;  and  we  have  just  seen  what  the  representative  theory 
itself  implies  as  to  their  intelligence.  Let  us  now,  how- 
ever, consider  them  more  nearly  under  this  last  head. 

And  first Awhat  is  the  work  they  undertake  ?)  Ob- 
serve, we  do  not  say,  the  work  which  they  ought  to  do ; 
but  the  work  which  they  propose  to  do,  and  try  to  do* 
This  comprehends  the  regulation  of  nearly  all  actions 
going  on  throughout  society.  4  Besides  devising  measures 
to  prevent  the  aggression  of  citizens  on  each  other,  and  to 
secure  each  the  quiet  possession  of  his  own  ;  and  besides 
assuming  the  further  function,  also  needful  in  the  present 
state  of  mankind,  of  defending  the  nation  as  a  whole 
against  invaders  ;  they  unhesitatingly  take  on  themselves 
to  provide  for  countless  wants,  to  cure  countless  ills,  to 
oversee  countless  affairs.  Out  of  the  many  beliefs  men 
have  held  respecting  God,  Creation,  the  Future,  etc.,  they 
presume  to  decide  which  are  true ;  and  endow  an  army  of 
priests  to  perpetually  repeat  them  to  tte  people.  The 
distress  inevitably  resulting  from  improvidence,  and  the 
greater  or  less  pressure  of  population  on  produce,  they 
undertake  to  remove :  they  settle  the  minimum  which 
each  rate-payer  shall  give  in  charity ;  and  how  the  pro- 


THINGS  PROPOSED  TO  BE  DONE.  183 

ceeds  shall  be  administered.  Judging  that  emigration 
will  not  naturally  go  on  fast  enough,  they  provide  means 
for  carrying  off  some  of  the  labouring  classes  to  the  colo- 
nies. Certain  that  social  necessities  will  not  cause  a  suffi- 
ciently rapid  spread  of  knowledge,  and  confident  that 
they  know  what  knowledge  is  most  required,  they  use 
public  money  for  the  building  of  schools  and  paying  of 
teachers ;  they  print  and  publish  State-school-books  ;  they 
employ  inspectors  to  see  that  their  standard  of  education 
is  conformed  to.  Playing  the  part  of  doctor,  they  insist 
that  every  one  shall  use  their  specific,  and  escape  the  dan- 
ger of  small-pox  by  submitting  to  an  attack  of  cow-pox. 
Playing  the  part  of  moralist,  they  decide  which  dramas 
are  fit  to  be  acted,  and  which  are  not.  Playing  the  part 
of  artist,  they  prompt  the  setting  up  of  drawing-schools ; 
provide  masters  and  models  ;  and,  at  Marlborough  House, 
enact  what  shall  be  considered  good  taste,  and  what  bad. 
Through  their  lieutenants,  the  corporations  of  towns,  they 
furnish  appliances  for  the  washing  of  people's  skins  and 
clothes ;  they,  in  some  cases,  manufacture  gas  and  put 
down  water-pipes ;  they  lay  out  sewers  and  cover  over 
cess-pools ;  they  establish  public  libraries  and  make  pub- 
lic gardens.  Moreover,  they  determine  how  houses  shall 
be  built,  and  what  is  a  safe  construction  for  a  ship  ;  they 
take  measures  for  the  security  of  railway  travelling ;  they 
fix  the  hour  after  which  public-houses  may  not  be  open ; 
they  regulate  the  prices  chargeable  by  vehicles  plying  in 
the  London  streets ;  they  inspect  lodging-houses ;  they 
arrange  for  town  burial-grounds ;  they  fix  the  hours  of 
factory  hands.  ^In  short,  they  aim  to  control  and  direct 
the  entire  national  lifeJ  flf  some  social  process  does  not 
seem  to  them  to  be  goin^on  fast  enough,  they  stimulate 
it ;  where  the  growth  is  not  in  the  mode  or  the  direction 
which  they  think  most  desirable,  they  alter  it ;  and  so 
they  seek  to  realize  some  undefined  ideal  community^ 


184:  EEPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

Sucli  being  the  task  undertakenX^hat,  let  us  ask,  are 
the  qualifications  for  discharging  it  n  Supposing  it  possi- 
ble to  achieve  all  this  (which  we  d6  not),  what  must  be 
the  knowledge  and  capacities  of  those  who  shall  achieve 
it  ?  ^  Successfully  to  prescribe  for  society,  it  is  needful  to 
know  the  structure  of  society — the  principles  on  which  it 
is  organized— the  natural  laws  underlying  its  progress. 
If  there  be  not  a  true  understanding  of  what  constitutes 
social  development,  there  must  necessarily  be  grave  mis- 
takes made  in  checking  these  changes  and  fostering  those. 
If  there  be  lack  of  insight  respecting  the  mutual  depend- 
ence of  the  many  functions  which,  taken  together,  make 
up  the  national  life,  unforeseen  disasters  will  ensue  from 
not  perceiving  how  an  interference  with  one  will  affect 
the  restv^  K  there  be  no  knowledge  of  the  natural  comr 
sensiis  at  any  time  subsisting  in  the  social  organism,  there 
will  of  course  be  bootless  attempts  to  secure  ends  which 
do  not  consist  with  its  passing  phase  of  organization. 
f  Clearly,  before  any  effort  to  regulate  the  myriad  multi- 
form changes  going  on  in  a  community,  can  be  rationally 
made,  there  must  be  an  adequate  comprehension  of  how 
these  changes  are  caused,  and  in  what  way  they  are  re- 
lated to  each  other — how  this  entangled  web  of  phenom- 
ena hangs  together — how  it  came  thus,  and  what  it  is 
becoming.  That  is  to  say/ there  must  be  a  due  acquaint- 
ance with  the  social  science^the  science  involving  all 
others ;  the  science  standing  above  all  others  in  subtlety 
and  complexity ;  the  science  which  the  highest  intelligence 
alone  can  master. 

And  now,  how  far  do  our  legislatorS~possess  this  quali- 
fication ?  Do  they  in  any  moderate  degree  display  it  ? 
Do  they  make  even  a  distant  approximation  to  it  ?  <  That 
many  of  them  are  very  good  classical  scholars  is  beyond 
doubt :  not  a  few  have  written  first-rate  Latin  verses,  and 
can  enjoy  a  Greek  play ;  but  there  is  no  obvious  relation 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF   LEGISLATORS.  185 

between  a  memory  well  stocked  with  the  words  talked 
two  thousand  years  ago,  and  an  understanding  disciplined 
to  deal  with  modern  society.  T'That  in  learning  the  lan- 
guages of  the  past  they  have  learnt  some  of  its  history,  is 
true  ;  but  considering  that  this  history  is  mainly  a  narra- 
tive of  battles  and  intrigues  and  negotiation^^  it  does  not 
throw  much  light  on  social  philosophy — not  even  the  sim- 
plest principles  of  political  economy  have  ever  been  gath- 
ered from  it.  yWe  do  not  question,  either,  that  a  moder- 
ate percentage  of  members  of  Parliament  are  fair  mathe- 
maticians ;  and  that  mathematical  discipline  is  valuable. 
As,  however,  political  problems  are  not  susceptible  of 
mathematical  analysis,  their  studies  in  this  direction  can- 
not much  aid  them  in  legislation. 

/To  the  large  body  of  military  officers  who  sit  as  repre- 
sentatives, we  would  not  for  a  moment  deny  a  competent 
knowledge  of  fortification,  of  strategy,  of  regimental  dis- 
cipline ;  but  we  do  not  see  that  these  throw  much  light 
on  the  causes  and  cure  of  national  evils.^  Indeed,  consid- 
ering that  all  war  is  anti-social,  and  that  the  government 
of  soldiers  is  necessarily  despotic  ;  military  education  and 
habits  are  more  likely  to  unfit  than  to  tit  men  for  regulat- 
ing the  doings  of  a  free  people.  Extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  laws,  may  doubtless  be  claimed  by  the  many  bar- 
risters and  solicitors  chosen  by  our  constituencies ;  and 
this  seems  a  kind  of  information  having  some  relation  to 
the  work  to  be  done.  Unless,  however,  this  information 
is  more  than  technical — unless  it  is  accompanied  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  ramified  consequences  that  laws  have 
produced  in  times  past,  and  are  producing  now  (which 
nobody  will  assert) ;  it  cannot  give  much  insight  into  So 
cial  Science.  A  familiarity  with  laws  is  no  more  a  prepa- 
ration for  rational  legislation,  than  would  a  familiarity 
with  all  the  nostrums  men  have  ever  used,  be  a  prepara 
tion  for  the  rational  practice  of  medicine.     Nowhere,  then, 


186  EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

in  our  representative  body,  do  we  find  appropriate  culture. 
Here  is  a  clever  novelist,  and  there  a  successful  maker  of 
railways ;  this  member  has  acquired  a  large  fortune  in 
trade,  and  that  member  is  noted  as  an  agricultural  im- 
prover ;  but  none  of  these  achievements  imply  fitness  for 
controlling  and  adjusting  social  processes.  Among  the 
many  who  have  passed  through  the  public  school  and  uni- 
versity curriculum — ^including  though  they  may  a  few 
Oxford  double-firsts  and  one  or  two  Cambridge  wranglers 
— there  are  none  who  have  received  the  discipline  required 
by  the  true  legislator.  None  have  that  competent  knowl- 
edge of  Science  in  general,  culminating  in  the  Science  of 
Life,  which  can  alone  form  a  basis  for  the  Science  of  So- 
ciety. 

/  For  it  is  one  of  those  open  secrets  which  seem  the 
more  secret  because  they  are  so  open^that  all  phenomena 
displayed  by  a  nation  are  phenomeim  of  Life,  and  are 
without  exception  dependent  on  the  laws  of  Lif^  There 
is  no  growth,  decay,  evil,  improvement,  or  change  of  any 
kind,  going  on  in  the  body  politic,  but  what  has  its  origi- 
nal cause  in  the  actions  of  human  beings ;  and  there  are 
no  actions  of  human  beings  but  what  conform  to  the  laws 
of  Life  in  general,  and  cannot  be  truly  understood  until 
those  laws  are  understood.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  assert 
that/ without  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  Life,  and  a  clear 
compi-ehension  of  the  way  in  which  they  underlie  and 
determine  social  growth  and  organization,  the  attempted 
regulation  of  social  life  must  end  in  perpetual  failures? 

See,  then,  the  immense  incongruitv  between  the  end 
and  the  means.  See  on  the  one  hand  (the  countless  difii- 
culties  of  the  gigantic  task ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the 
almost  total  unpreparedness  of  those  who  undertake_it) 
Need  we  wonder  that  legislation  is  ever  breaking  down  ? 
Is  it  not  natural  that  complaint,  amendment,  and  repeal, 
should  form  the  staple  business  of  every  session  ?    Is  there 


LAOK  OF  POLITICAL   EDUCATION.  187 

any  thing  more  than  might  be  expected  in  the  absurd 
Jack-Cadeisms  which  almost  nightly  disgrace  the  debates  ? 
Even  without  setting  up  so  high  a  standard  of  qualifica- 
tion as  that  above  specified,  the  unfitness  of  most  repre- 
sentatives for  their  duties  is  abundantly  manifest.  .'.You 
need  but  glance  over  the  miscellaneous  list  of  noblemen, 
baronets,  squires,  merchants,  barristers,  engineers,  soldiers, 
sailors,  railway-directors,  etc.,  and  then  ask  what  training 
their  previous  lives  have  given  them  for  the  intricate  busi- 
ness of  legislation,  to  see  at  once  how  extreme  must  be 
the  incompetence?  One  would  think  that  the  whole  sys- 
tem had  been  framed  on  the  sayings  of  some  political 
Dogberry : — "  The  art  of  healing  is  difficult ;  the  art  of 
government  easy.  The  understanding  of  arithmetic  comes 
by  study ;  while  the  understanding  of  society  comes  by 
instinct.  Watchmaking  requires  a  long  apprenticeship ; 
but  there  needs  none  for  the  making  of  institutions.  To 
manage  a  shop  properly  requires  teaching ;  but  the  man- 
agement of  a  people  may  be  undertaken  without  prepara- 
tion." Were  we  to  be  visited  by  some  wiser  Gulliver,  or, 
as  in  the  "  Micromegas"  of  Voltaire,  by  some  inhabitant 
of  another  sphere,  his  account  of  our  political  institutions 
might  run  somewhat  as  follows  : 

"  I  found  that  the  English  were  governed  by  an  assem- 
bly of  men,  said  to  embody  the  '  collective  wisdom.'  This 
assembly,  joined  with  some  other  authorities  which  seem 
practically  subordinate  to  it,  has  unlimited  power.  I  was 
much  perplexed  by  this.  With  us  it  is  customary  to 
define  the  office  of  any  appointed  body ;  and  above  all 
things  to  see  that  it  does  not  defeat  the  ends  for  which  it 
was  appointed.  But  both  the  theory  and  the  practice  of 
this  English  Government,  imply  that  it  may  do  whatever 
it  pleases.  Though,  by  their  current  maxims  and  usages, 
the  English  recognize  the  right  of  property  as  sacred — 
though  the  infraction  of  it  is  considered  by  them  one  of 


188  REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERKMENT. 

the  gravest  crimes — though  the  laws  profess  to  be  so  jeal- 
ous of  it  as  to  punish  even  the  stealing  of  a  turnip ;  yet 
their  legislators  suspend  it  at  will.  They  take  the  money 
of  citizens  for  any  project  which  they  choose  to  under- 
take ;  though  such  project  was  not  in  the  least  contem- 
plated by  those  who  gave  them  authority — nay,  though 
the  greater  part  of  the  citizens  from  whom  the  money  is 
taken  had  no  share  in  giving  them  such  authority.  'Each 
citizen  can  hold  property  only  so  long  as  the  654  deputies 
do  not  want  it.  It  seemed  to  me  that  an  exploded  doc- 
trine once  current  among  them  of  *  the  divine  right  of 
kings,'  had  simply  been  changed  into  the  divine  right  of 
Parliaments. 

"  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  think  that  the  constitution 
of  things  on  the  Earth  was  totally  different  from  what  it 
is  with  us  ;  for  the  current  political  philosophy  here,  im- 
plies that  acts  are  not  right  or  wrong  in  themselves,  but 
become  one  or  the  other  by  the  votes  of  law-makers.  Ofn 
our  world  it  is  considered  manifest  that  if  a  number  of 
beings  live  together,  there  must,  in  virtue  of  their  natures, 
be  certain  primary  conditions  on  which  only  they  can 
work  satisfactorily  in  concert ;  and  that  the  conduct  which 
breaks  through  these  conditions  is  bad.  In  the  English 
legislature,  however,  a  proposal  to  regulate  conduct  by 
any  such  abstract  standard  would  be  held  absurd.  I 
asked  one  of  their  members  of  Parliament  whether  a  ma- 
jority of  the  House  could  legitimize  murder.  He  said, 
No.  I  asked  him  whether  it  could  sanctify  robbery.  He 
thought  not.  But  I  could  not  make  him  see  that  if  mur- 
der and  robbery  are  intrinsically  wrong,  and  not  to  be 
made  right  by  decisions  of  statesmen,  that  similarly  aU 
actions  must  be  either  right  or  wrong,  apart  from  the  au- 
thority of  the  law ;  and  that,  if  the  right  and  wrong  of 
the  law  are  not  in  harmony  with  this  intrinsic  right  and 
wrong,  the  law  itself  is  criminal.     Some,  indeed,  among 


SUPPOSED   OMNIPOTENCE   OF  VOTES.  189 

the  English  think  as  we  do.  One  of  their  remarkable 
men  {7iot  included  in  their  Assembly  of  Notables)  writes 
thus: 

"  '  To  ascertain  better  and  better  what  the  will  of  the  Eternal 
was  and  is  with  us,  what  the  laws  of  the  Eternal  are,  all  Parlia- 
ments, Ecumenic  Councils,  Congresses,  and  other  Collective  Wis- 
doms, have  had  this  for  their  object Nevertheless,  in  the 

inexplicable  universal  votings  and  debatings  of  these  Ages,  an  idea 
or  rather  a  dumb  presumption  to  the  contrary  has  gone  idly 
abroad ;  and  at  this  day,  over  extensive  tracts  of  the  world,  poor 
human  beings  are  to  be  found,  whose  practical  belief  it  is  that  if 

we  "  vote  "  this  or  that,  so  this  or  that  will  thenceforth  be 

Practically,  men  have  come  to  imagine  that  the  Laws  of  this  Uni- 
verse, like  the  laws  of  constitutional  countries,  are  decided  by 
voting.  ...  It  is  an  idle  fancy.  The  Laws  of  this  Universe,  of 
which  if  the  Laws  of  England  are  not  an  exact  transcript,  they 
should  passionately  study  to  become  such,  are  fixed  by  the  ever- 
lasting congruity  of  things,  and  are  not  fixable  or  changeable  by 
"  voting !  "  ' 

(  "  But  I  find  that,  contemptuously  disregarding  all  such 
protests,  the  English  legislators  persevere  in  their  hyper- 
atheistic  notion,  that  an  Act  of  Parliament  duly  enforced 
by  State-officers,  will  work  out  any  object :  no  question  be- 
ing put  whether  Laws  of  Nature  permit.  ">I  forgot  to  ask 
whether  they  considered  that  different  kinds  of  food  could 
be  made  wholesome  or  unwholesome  by  State-decree. 

"  One  thing  that  struck  me,  was  the  curious  way  in 
which  the  members  of  their  House  of  Commons  judge  of 
each  others'  capacities.  Many  who  expressed  opinions  of 
the  crudest  kind,  or  trivial  platitudes,  or  worn-out  super- 
stitions, were  very  civilly  treated.  Follies  as  great  as 
that  but  a  few  years  since  uttered  by  one  of  their  minis- 
ters, who  said  that  free  trade  was  contrary  to  common 
sense,  were  received  in  silence.  ^But  I  was  present  when 
one  of  their  number,  who  as  I  thought  was  speaking  very 


190  EEPEESENTATIVE  GOVEENMENT. 

rationally,  made  a  mistake  in  his  pronunciation — made 
what  they  call  a  wrong  quantity ;  and  immediately  there 
arose  a  shout  of  derision.  It  seemed  quite  tolerable  that 
a  member  should  know  little  or  nothing  about  the  busi- 
ness he  was  there  to  transact ;  but  quite  ^7^tolerable  that 
he  ^hould  be  ignorant  on  a  point  of  no  moment. 

:"The  English  pique  themselves  on  being  especially 
practical — have  a  great  contempt  for  theorizers,  and  pro- 
fess to  be  guided  exclusively  by  facts.  Before  making  or 
altering  a  law,  it  is  the  custom  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
inquiry,  who  send  for  men  able  to  give  infonnation  con- 
cerning the  matter  in  hand,  and  ask  them  some  thousands 
of  questions.  '  These  questions,  and  the  answers  given  to 
them,  are  printed  in  large  books,  and  distributed  among 
the  members  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament ;  and  I  was 
told  that  they  spent  about  £100,pOO  a  year  in  thus  collect- 
ing and  distributing  evidence.  Nevertheless,  it  appeared 
to  me  that  the  ministers  and  representatives  of  the  Eng- 
lish people,  pertinaciously  adhere  to  theories  long  ago  dis- 
proved by  the  most  conspicuous  facts.  They  pay  great 
respect  to  petty  details  of  evidence,  but  of  large  truths 
they  are  quite  regardless.  Thus,  the  experience  of  age 
after  age,  has  shown  that  their  state-management  is  almost 
invariably  bad.  The  national  estates  are  so  miserably  ad- 
ministered as  often  to  bring  loss  instead  of  gain.  The 
government  ship-yards  are  uniformly  extravagant  and 
inefficient.  The  judicial  system  works  so  ill,  that  most 
citizens  will  submit  to  serious  losses  rather  than  run  risks 
of  being  ruined  by  law-suits?  I  Countless  facts  prove  the 
Government  to  be  the  worst  owner,  the  worst  manufac- 
turer, the  worst  trader:  in  fact,  the  worst  manager,  be 
the  thing  managed  what  it  may.  But  though  the  evi- 
dence of  this  is  abundant  and  conclusive — though  during 
a  recent  war  the  bunglings  of  officials  were  as  glaring  and 
multitudinous  as  ever ;  yet  the  belief  that  any  proposed 


GOVEENMEl^  AS   A  MAITCJFACTUEEE.  191 

duties  will  be  satisfactorily  discharged  by  a  new  public 
department  appointed  to  them,  seems  not  a  whit  the 
weaker.  Legislators,  thinking  themselves  practical,  cling 
to  the  plausible  theory  of  an  officially-regulated  society, 
spite  of  overwhelming  evidence  that  official  regulation 
perpetually  fails^ 

"  Nay,  indeed,  the  belief  seems  to  gain  strength  among 
these  fact-loving  English  statesmen  ;  notwithstanding  the 
facts  are  against  it.  /Proposals  for  State-control  over  this 
and  the  other,  have  been  of  late  more  rife  than  ever. 
And,  most  remarkable  of  all,  their  representative  assembly 
lately  listened  with  grave  faces  to  the  assertion,  made  by 
one  of  their  high  authorities,  that  State-workshops  are 
more  economical  than  private  workshops.  Their  prime 
minister,  in  defending  a  recently-established  arms-factory, 
actually  told  them  that  at  one  of  their  arsenals,  certain 
missiles  of  war  were  manufactured  not  only  better  than 
by  the  trade,  but  at  about  one-third  the  price ;  and  added, 
*  80  it  would  be  in  all  things.^  The  English  being  a  trading 
people,  who  must  be  tolerably  familiar  with  the  usual 
rates  of  profits  among  manufacturers,  and  the  margin  for 
possible  economy,  the  fact  that  they  should  have  got  for 
their  chief  representative  one  so  utterly  in  the  dark  on 
these  matters,  struck  me  as  a  wonderful  result  of  the  rep- 
resentative system. 

"  I  did  not  inquire  much  ftirther,  for  it  was  manifest 
that  if  these  were  really  their  wisest  men,  the  English 
were  not  a  wise  people." 

(Hlepresentative  government,  then,  cannot  be  called  a 
success,  in  so  far  as  the  choice  of  men  is  concerned.^  Those 
it  puts  into  power  are  the  fittest  neither  in  respect  of  their 
interests,  their  culture,  nor  their  wisdom.  And  as  a  con- 
sequence, partly  of  this  and  partly  of  its  complex  and 
cumbrous  nature,  representative  government  is  any  thing 


192  KEPEESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

but  efficient  for  administrative  purpose^  (in  these  respects 
it  is  manifestly  inferior  to  monarchical  goVernraenji  This 
has  the  advantage  of  simplicity ;  which  is  always  condu- 
cive to  efficiency.  And  it  has  the  further  advantage  that 
th^  p^wer  is  in  the  hands  of  one  who  is  directly  concerned 
in  the  good  management  of  national  affairs :  seeing  that 
the  continued  maintenance  of  his  power — nay,  often  his 
very  life — depends  on  this.)  For  his  own  sake  a  monarch 
chooses  the  wisest  councillors  he  can  find,  regardless  of 
class-distinctions.  His  interest  in  getting  the  best  help,  is 
too  great  to  allow  of  prejudices  standing  between  him  and 
a  far-seeing  man.  We  see  this  abundantly  illustrated. 
Did  not  the  kings  of  France  take  Richelieu,  and  Mazarin, 
and  Turgot  to  assist  them?  Had  not  Henry  VHI.  his 
Wolsey,  Elizabeth  her  Burleigh,  James  his  Bacon,  Crom- 
well his  Milton  ?  And  where  not  these  men  of  greater 
calibre  than  those  who  hold  the  reins  under  our  constitu- 
tional regime  f  So  strong  is  the  motive  of  an  autocrat  to 
make  use  of  ability  wherever  it  exists,  that  Tie  will  take 
even  his  barber  into  council  if  he  finds  him  a  clever  fellow. 
Besides  choosing  them  for  ministers  and  advisers,  he  seeks 
out  the  most  competent  men  for  other  offices.  Napoleon 
raised  his  marshals  from  the  ranks ;  and  owed  his  military 
success  in  great  part  to  the  readiness  with  which  he  saw 
and  availed  himself  of  merit  wherever  found.?  We  have 
recently  seen  in  Russia,  how  prompt  was  the  recognition 
and  promotion  of  engineering  talent  in  the  case  of  Todtle- 
ben ;  and  know  to  our  cost  how  greatly  the  prolonged  de- 
fence of  Sebastopol  was  due  to  this. 

u  In  the  marked  contrast  to  these  cases  supplied  by  our 
own  army,  in  which  genius  is  ignored  while  muffs  are 
honoured — in  which  wealth  and  caste  make  the  advance 
of  plebeian  merit  next  to  impossible-^and  in  which  jeal- 
ousies between  Queen's  service  and  Company's  service 
render  the  best  generalship  almost  unavailable— f-we  see 


WHERE   DESPOTISM  IS   ADVANTAGEOUS.  193 

/that  the  representative  system  fails  in  the  officering  of  its 
executive,  as  much  as  in  the  officering  of  its  legislativ^  A 
striking  antithesis  between  the  actions  of  the  two  forms 
of  government,  is  presented  in  the  evidence  given  before 
the  Sebastopol  Committee  respecting  the  supply  of  huts 
to  the  Crimean  army — evidence  showing  that  while,  in 
his  negotiations  with  the  English  Government,  the  con- 
tractor for  the  huts  met  with  nothing  but  vacillation,  de- 
lay, and  official  rudeness ;  the  conduct  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment was  marked  by  promptitude,  decision,  sound 
judgment,  and  great  civility.  <  Every  thing  goes  to  show 
that  for  administrative  efficiency,  autocratic  power  is 
the  best.  If  your  aim  is  a  well-organized  army — if  you 
want  to  have  sanitary  departments,  and  educational 
departments,  and  charity-departments,  managed  in  a  busi- 
ness-like way — if  you  would  have  society  actively  regu- 
lated by  staffs  of  State-agents ;  then  by  all  means  choose 
that  system  of  complete  centralization  which  we  call 
despotism.  ^ 

Probably,  notwithstanding  the  hints  dropped  at  the 
outset,  most  have  read  the  foregoing  pages  with  surprise. 
Very  likely  some  have  referred  to  the  cover  of  the  JRevieio, 
to  see  whether  they  have  not,  in  mistake,  taken  up  some 
other  than  the  "  Westminster  /  "  while  some  may,  perhaps, 
have  accompanied  their  perusal  by  a  running  commentary 
of  epithets  condemnatory  of  our  seeming  change  of  prin- 
ciples. Let  them  not  be  alarmed.  We  have  not  in  the 
least  swerved  from  the  confession  of  faith  set  forth  in  our 
prospectus.  On  the  contrary,  as  we  shall  shortly  show, 
our  adhesion  to  free  institutions  is  as  strong  as  ever — nay, 
has  even  gained  strength  through  this  apparently  antago- 
nistic criticism. 

/  The  subordination  of  a  nation  to  a  man,  is  not  a  whole- 
some but  a  vicious  state  of  things :  needful,  indeed,  for  a 
9 


194  REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

vicious  humanity ;  but  to  be  outgrown  as  fast  as  may  be. 
The  instinct  which  makes  it  possible  is  any  thing  but  a 
noble  one.  Call  it  "  hero-worship,"  and  it  looks  respecta- 
ble. Call  it  what  it  is — a  blind  awe  and  fear  of  power,  no 
matter  of  what  kind,  but  more  especially  of  the  brutal 
kind ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  to  be  admired.  Watch  it  in 
early  ages  deifying  the  cannibal  chief;  singing  the  praises 
of  the  successful  thief;  commemorating  the  most  blood- 
thirsty warriors ;  speaking  with  reverence  of  those  who 
had  shown  undying  revenge ;  and  erecting  altars  to  such 
as  carried  furthest  the  vices  which  disgrace  humanity; 
and  the  illusion  disappears.-^  Read  how,  where  it  was 
strongest,  it  immolated  crowds  of  victims  at  the  tomb  of 
the  dead  king — how,  at  the  altars  raised  to  its  heroes,  it 
habitually  sacrificed  prisoners  and  children  to  satisfy  their 
traditional  appetite  for  human  flesh — how  it  produced  that 
fealty  of  subjects  to  rulers  which  made  possible  endless 
aggressions,  battles,  massacres,  and  horrors  innumerable — 
how  it  has  mercilessly  slain  those  who  would  not  lick  the 
dust  before  its  idols ; — read  all  this,  and  the  feeling  no 
longer  seems  so  worthy  an  one.  L  See  it  in  later  days 
idealizing  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best  monarchs  ;  receiv- 
ing assassins  with  acclamation;  hurrahing  before  suc- 
cessful treachery ;  rushing  to  applaud  the  procession  and 
shows  and  ceremonies  wherewith  effete  power  strengthens 
itself;  and  it  looks  far  from  laudable.  Autocracy  pre- 
supposes inferiority  of  nature  on  the  part  of  both  ruler 
and  subject:  on  the  one  side  a  cold,  unsympathetic 
sacrificing  of  others'  wills  to  self-will ;  on  the  other 
side  a  mean,  cowardly  abandonment  of  the  claims  of 
manhood.  > 
\  Our  very  language  bears  testimony  to  this.  Do  not 
dignity^  independence^  and  other  words  of  approbation, 
imply  a  nature  at  variance  with  this  relation  ?  Are  not 
tyrannical^  arhitary^  despotic^  epithets  of  reproach  ?  and 


HERO-WOESHIP   UNMASKED,  195 

are  not  truckling^  fawning^  cringing^  epithets  of  con- 
tempt ?  Is  not  slavish  a  condemnatory  term  ?  Does  not 
servile^  that  is,  serf-like,  imply  littleness,  meanness ?  "And 
has  not  the  word  villain^  which  originally  meant  bonds- 
man, come  to  signify  every  thing  which  is  hateful  ?  That 
language  should  thus  inadvertently  embody  the  dislike  of 
mankind  for  those  who  most  display  the  instinct  of  sub- 
ordination, is  alone  sufficient  pr^of  that  this  instinct  is 
associated  with  evil  dispositions.^  It  has  been  the  parent 
of  countless  crimes.  It  is  answerable  for  the  torturing 
and  murder  of  the  noble-minded  who  would  not  submit — 
for  the  horrors  of  Bastiles  and  Siberias.  It  has  ever  been 
the  represser  of  knowledge,  of  free  thought,  of  true  pro- 
gress. /In  all  times  it  has  fostered  the  vices  of  courts,  and 
made  those  vices  fashionable  throughout  nations.  With  a 
George  IV.  on  the  throne,  it  weekly  tells  ten  thousand 
lies,  in  the  shape  of  prayers  for  a  "  most  religious  and  gra- 
cious king."  And  even  now  it  is  daily  guilty  of  false- 
hood, in  selling  and  buying  portraits  which  every  one 
knows  to  be  utterly  untrue.  ^Whether  you  read  the  an- 
nals of  the  far  past — whether  you  look  at  the  various  un- 
civilized races  dispersed  over  the  globe — or  whether  you 
coixt3:ast  the  exisjjng  nations  of  Europe ;  yon  figually  fkuL/v- 
that  submission  to  authority  decreases  as  morality  and  m^^ 
teiligence  mcre^e.  From  ^incient  warrior- worship  down  > 
to  modern  flunkeyism,  the  sentiment  has  ever  been  strong- 
est where  human  nature  has  been  vilest.'' 

This  relation  between  barbarism  and  loyalty,  is  one  of 
those  beneficent  arrangements  which  "  the  servant  and 
interpreter  of  nature  "  everywhere  meets  with.  The  sub- 
ordination of  many  to  one,  is  a  form  of  society  needful  for 
men  so  long  as  their  natures  are  savage,  or  anti-social ; 
and  that  it  may  be  maintained,  it  is  needful  that  they 
should  have  an  extreme  awe  of  the  one.  Just  in  propor- 
tion as  their  conduct  to  each  other  is  such  as  to  breed  per- 


196  EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

petual  antagonism,  endangering  social  nnion ;  just  in  that 
proportion  must  there  be  a  reverence  for  the  strong, 
determined,  cruel  ruler,  who  alone  can  repress  their  ex- 
plosive natures,  and  keep  them  from  mutual  destruction. 
Among  such  a  people  any  form  of  free  government — pre- 
supposing as  it  does  some  share  of  equitable  feeling  and 
self-control  in  those  concerned — is  an  impossibility :  there 
must  be  a  despotism  as  stern  as  the  people  are  savage ; 
and  that  such  a  despotism  may  exist,  there  must  be  a  su- 
perstitious worship  of  the  despot.  But  fast  as  the  disci- 
pline of  social  life  modifies  the  human  character — as  fast  as, 
through  lack  of  use,  the  old  predatory,  aggressive  instincts 
dwindle — as  fast  as,  by  constant  exercise,  the  sympathetic 
feelings  grow ;  so  fast  does  this  hard  rule  become  less 
necessary ;  so  fast  does  the  authority  of  the  ruler  dimin- 
ish ;  so  fast  does  the  awe  of  him  disappear.  From  being 
originally  god,  or  demi-god,  he  comes  at  length  to  be  a 
very  ordinary  person ;  liable  to  be  criticized,  ridiculed, 
caricatured.    ''  <^ 

Various  influences  conspire  to  this  result.  Accumulat- 
ing knowledge  gradually  divests  the  ruler  of  those  super- 
natural attributes  at  first  ascribed  to  him.  The  concep- 
tions which  developing  science  gives  of  the  grandeur  of 
creation,  as  well  as  the  constancy  and  irresistibleness  of 
its  Omnipresent  Cause,  make  all  feel  the  comparative 
littleness  of  human  power ;  and  the  awe  once  felt  for  the 
great  man,  is,  by  degrees,  transferred  to  that  Universe  of 
which  the  great  man  is  seen  to  form  but  an  insignificant 
part.  Continued  increase  of  population,  with  its  average 
percentage  of  great  men,  involves  the  comparative  fre- 
quency of  such ;  and  the  more  numerous  they  are,  the 
less  respect  can  be  given  to  each :  they  dwai-f  each  other. 
As  society  gets  settled  and  organized,  its  welfare  and  pro- 
gress become  more  and  more  independent  of  any  one.  In 
a  primitive  society,  the   death  of  a  chief  may  alter  the 


DECLINE   OF   DESPOTIC   POWER.  197 

whole  course  of  things  ;  but  in  a  society  like  ours,  things 
go  on  much  as  before,  no  matter  who  dies.  Thus,  many- 
influences  combine  to  diminish  autocratic  power,  whether 
political  or  other.7  It  is  true,  not  only  in  the  sense  in 
which  Tennyson  writes  it,  but  also  in  a  higher  sense, 
that — 

"  The  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is  more  and  more." 

^  Further,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  while  the  unlimited 
authority  of  the  greatest  man  ceases  to  be  needful ;  and 
while  the  superstitious  awe  which  upholds  that  unlimited 
authority  dwindles ;  it  at  the  same  time  becomes  impossi- 
ble to  get  the  greatest  man  to  the  top.  In  a  rude  social 
state,  where  might  is  right,  where  war  is  the  business  of 
life,  where  the  qualities  required  in  the  ruler,  alike  for  con- 
trolling his  subjects  and  defeating  his  enemies,  are  bodily 
strength,  courage,  cunning,  will,  it  is  easy  to  pick  out  the 
best;  or  rather — ^he  picks  himself  out.  The  qualities 
which  make  him  the  fittest  governor  for  the  barbarians 
around  him,  are  the  qualities  by  which  he  gets  the  mas- 
tery over  them.  But,  in  an  advanced,  complex,  and  com- 
paratively peaceful  state  like  ours,  these  are  not  the  quali- 
ties needed  (and  even  were  they  needed,  the  firmly-organ- 
ized arrangements  of  society  do  not  allow  the  possessor 
of  them  to  break  through  to  the  top).  For  the  rule  of  a 
settled,  civilized  community,  the  characteristics  required 
are — not  a  love  of  conquest,  but  a  desire  for  the  general 
happiness ;  not  undying  hate  of  enemies,  but  a  calm  dis- 
passionate equity ;  not  artful  manoeuvring,  but  philosophic 
insight.  ^  How  is  the  man  most  endowed  with  these  to  be 
found  ?  In  no  country  is  he  ordinarily  born  heir  to  the 
throne ;  and  that  he  can  be  chosen  out  of  thirty  millions 
of  people  none  will  be  foolish  enough  to  think.  The  in- 
capacity for  recognizing  the  greatest  worth,  we  have 
already  seen   illustrated  in   our  parliamentary  elections. 


198  EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

And  if  the  few  thousands  forming  a  constituency,  cannot 
pick  out  from  among  themselves  their  wisest  man ;  still 
less  can  the  millions  forming  a  nation  do  iU  Just  as  fast 
as  society  becomes  populous,  complex,  peaceful,  so  fast 
does  the  political  supremacy  of  the  best  become  im 
possible. 

(But  even  were  the  relation  of  autocrat  and  slave  a 
morally  wholesome  one ;  and  even  were  it  possible  to  find 
the  fittest  man  to  be  autocrat ;  we  should  still  contend 
that  such  a  form  of  government  is  bad.  )  We  should  not 
contend  this  simply  on  the  ground  tha^  self-government  is 
a  valuable  educator.^  But  we  should  taKe  the  ground  that 
(^  no  human  being,  however  wise  and  good,  is  fit  to  be  sole 
^fmler  over  the  doings  of  an  involved  society ;  and  that, 
with  the  best  intentions,  a  benevolent  despot  is  very  likely 
to  produce  the  most  terrible  mischiefs.  Which  would  else 
have  been  impossible.  We  will  take  the  case  of  all  others 
the  most  favourable  to  those  who  would  give  supreme 
power  to  the  best.^  We  will  instance  Mr.  Carlyle's  model 
hero — Cromwell.  Doubtless  there  was  much  in  the  man- 
ners of  the  times  when  Puritanism  arose,  to  justify  its  dis- 
gust. Doubtless  the  vices  and  follies  bequeathed  by  effete 
Catholicism  still  struggling  for  existence,  were  bad  enough 
to  create  a  reactionary  asceticism.  It  is  in  the  order  of 
Nature,  however,  that  men's  habits  and  pleasures  are  not 
to  be  changed  suddenly.  For  anj  perma7ie7it  effect  to  be 
produced,  it  must  be  produced  slowly.  Better  tastes, 
higher  aspirations,  must  be  developed ;  not  enforced  from 
without. 

Disaster  is  sure  to  result  from  the  withdrawal  of  lower 
gratifications  before  higher  ones  have  taken  their  place  • 
for  gratification  of  some  kind  is  a  condition  to  healthful 
existence.  Whatever  ascetic  morality,  or  rather  im- 
morality, may  say,  pleasures  and  pains  are  the  incentives 
and  restraints  by  which  Nature  keeps  her  progeny  from 


THE  REACTION  AFTEE  CEOMWELL.  199 

destruction.  No  contemptuous  title  of  "  pig-philosophy  " 
will  alter  the  eternal  fact,  that  Misery  is  the  highway  to 
Death ;  while  Happiness  is  added  Life,  and  the  giver  of 
Life.  But  indignant  Puritanism  could  not  see  this  truth ; 
and  with  the  extravagance  of  fanaticism  sought  to  aholish 
pleasure  in  general.  Getting  into  power,  it  put  down  not 
only  questionable  amusements,  but  all  others  along  with 
them.  And  for  these  repressions,  Cromwell,  either  as 
enacting,  maintaining,  or  allowing  them,  was  responsible. 
What,  now,  was  the  result  of  this  attempt  to  dragoon 
men  into  virtue  ?  What  came  when  the  strong  man,  who 
thought  he  was  thus  "  helping  God  to  mend  all,"  died  ? 
A  dreadful  reaction  brought  in  one  of  the  most  degraded 
periods  of  our  history.  Into  the  newly-garnished  house 
entered  "  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked  than  the  first." 
For  generations  the  English  character  was  lowered :  vice 
was  gloried  in,  virtue  was  ridiculed ;  dramatists  made 
marriage  the  stock-subject  of  laughter;  profaneness  and 
obscenity  flourished ;  high  aspirations  ceased  ;  the  whole 
age  was  corrupt.  'Not  until  George  IIL  reigned  was 
there  a  better  standard  of  living.  0Lnd  for  this  century 
of  demoralization  we  have,  in  great  measure,  to  thank 
Cromwell.  Is  it,  then,  so  clear  that  the  domination  of  one 
man,  righteous  though  he  may  be,  is  a  blessing  ? 

:  Lastly,  it  is  t<i^e  remarked  that  when  the  political 
supremacy  of  the  greatest  no  longer  exists  in  an  overt 
form,  it  still  continues  in  a  disguised  and  more  beneficent 
form.)  For  is  it  not  manifest,  that  in  these  latter  days  the 
wise  man  eventually  gets  his  edicts  enforced  by  others,  if 
not  by  himself  Adam  Smith,  from  his  chimney-corner, 
dictated  greater  changes  than  prime  ministers  do.  '  A 
General  Thompson  who  forges  the  weapons  with  which 
the  Anti-Corn-Law  battle  is  fought — a  Cobden  and  a 
Bright  who  add  to  and  wield  them,  forward  civilization 
much  more  than  those  who  hold  sceptres.     Repugnant  as 


200  EEPKESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

the  fact  may  be  to  statesmen,  it  is  yet  one  which  cannot 
be  gainsayed.  Whoever,  to  the  great  effects  already  pro- 
duced by  Free-trade,  joins  the  far  greater  effects  that  will 
be  hereafter  produced,  not  only  on  ourselves  but  on  all 
the  other  nations  who  must  adopt  our  policy,  must  see 
that  the  revolution  initiated  by  these  men  is  far  wider 
than  has  been  initiated  by  any  potentate  of  modem  times. 
As  Mr.  Carlyle  very  well  knows,  those  who  elaborate  new 
truths  and  teach  them  to  their  fellows,  are  now-a-days  the 
real  rulers — "  the  unacknowledged  legislators  " — the  vir- 
tual kings.  From  afar  off,  those  who  sit  on  thrones  and 
form  cabinets  are  perceived  to  be  but  the  servants  of  such. 
And  then  note  that  the  power  thus  indirectly  exercised,  is 
no  lono^er  a  danorerous  one :  but  one  that  is  almost  uni- 
formly  beneficial.  -'For  when,  as  with  ourselves,  the  dicta 
of  the  Thinker  cannot  get  established  in  law  until  after  a 
long  battle  of  opinion — when  they  have  to  prove  their 
fitness  for  the  Time  by  conquering  Time ;  we  have  a 
guarantee  that  no  great  changes  which  are  ill-considered 
or  premature  can  be  brought  about.  We  have  the  good 
which  great  men  can  do  us,  while  we  are  saved  from  the 
evil. 

No ;  the  old  regime  has  passed  away,  never  to  return. 
For  ourselves  at  least,  the  subordination  of  the  many  to 
the  one,  has  become  alike  needless,  repugnant,  and  impossi- 
ble. Good  for  its  time,  bad  for  ours,  the  ancient  "hero- 
worship  "  is  dead ;  and  happily  no  declamations,  be  they 
never  so  eloquent,  can  revive  it. 

/  Here  seem  to  be  two  irreconcileable  positions — two 
mutually-destructive  arguments,  f  First,  a  condemnatory 
criticism  on  representative  government,  and  then  a  still 
more  condemnatory  criticism  on  monarchical  government^ 
each  apparently  abolishing  the  other.  -^ 

Kevertheless,  the  paradox  is  easily  explicable.     It  is 


m  WHAT  IT  IS  THE  BEST.  201 

quite  possible  to  say  all  that  we  have  said  concerning  the 
defects  of  j*epresentative  government,  and  still  to  hold 
that  it  is  the  best  form  of  government.  Nay,  it  is  quite 
possible  to  derive  a  more  profound  conviction  of  its 
superiority  from  the  very  evidence  which  appears  so  un- 
favourable to  it.  7 

S'or  nothing  that  we  have  urged  tells  against  its  good- 
as  a  means  of  securing  justice  between  man  and  man, 
or  class  and  classT)  Abundant  evidence  shows  that  the 
maintenance  of'^uitable  relations  among  its  subjects, 
which  forms  the  essential  business  of  a  ruling  power,  is 
surest  when  the  ruling  power  is  of  popular  origin ;  not- 
withstanding the  defects  to  which  such  a  ruling  power  is 
liable.  (For  discharging  the  true  function  of  a  government, 
representative  government  is  shown  to  be  the  best,  alike 
by  its  origin^  its  theory^  and  its  results.  Let  us  glance  at 
the  facts  under  these  three  headsTjT" 

Alike  in  Spain,  in  England,  and  in  France,  popular 
power  embodied  itself  as  a  check  upon  kingly  tyranny, 
that  is — kingly  injustice.  The  earliest  accounts  we  have 
of  the  Spanish  Cortes,  say  that  it  was  their  office  to  advise 
the  King;  and  to  follow  their  advice  was  his  duty. 
They  petitioned,  remonstrated,  complained  of  grievances, 
and  supplicated  for  redress.  The  King,  having  acceded 
to  their  requirements,  swore  to  observe  them ;  and  it  was 
agreed  that  any  act  of  his  in  contravention  of  the  statutes 
thus  established,  should  be  "  respected  as  the  King's  com- 
mands, but  not  executed,  as  contrary  to  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  subject."  In  all  which  we  see  very 
clearly  that  the  special  aim  of  the  Cortes  was  to  get  recti- 
fied the  injustices  committed  by  the  King  or  others; 
that  the  King  was  in  the  habit  of  breaking  the  promises 
of  amendment  he  made  to  them ;  and  that  they  had 
to  adopt  measures  to  enforce  the  fulfilment  of  his 
promises. 

9* 


202  REPRESENTATIVE   GOVERNMENT. 

In  England  we  trace  analogous  facts.  The  Barons 
who  bridled  the  tyranny  of  King  John,  though  not 
foi-mally  appointed,  were  virtually  impromptu  representa- 
tives of  the  nation;  and  in  their  demand  that  justice 
should  neither  be  sold,  denied,  nor  delayed,  we  discern 
the  social  evils  which  led  to  this  taking  of  the  power  into 
their  own  hands.  In  early  times  the  knights  and  bur- 
gesses, summoned  by  the  King  with  the  view  of  getting 
supplies  from  them,  had  for  their  especial  business  to  ob- 
tain from  him  the  redress  of  grievances,  that  is — the  exe- 
cution of  justice ;  and  in  their  eventually-obtained  and 
occasionally-exercised  power  of  withholding  supplies  until 
justice  was  granted,  we  see  both  the  need  there  was  for 
remedying  the  iniquities  of  autocracy,  and  the  adaptation 
of  representative  institutions  to  this  end.  And  the  further 
development  of  popular  power  latterly  obtained,  origin- 
ated from  the  demand  for  fairer  laws — for  less  class-privi- 
lege, class-exemption,  class-injustice:  a  fact  which  the 
speeches  of  the  Reform-Bill  agitation  abundantly  prove. 
In  France,  again,  representative  government  grew  into  a 
definite  form  under  the  stimulus  of  unbearable  oppression. 
When  the  accumulated  extortion  of  centuries  had  reduced 
the  mass  of  the  people  to  misery — when  millions  of  hag- 
gard faces  were  seen  throughout  the  land — when  starv- 
ing complainants  were  hanged  on  "  a  gallows  forty  feet 
high  " — when  the  exactions  and  cruelties  of  good-for-noth- 
ing kings  and  vampy re-nobles  had  brought  the  nation  to 
the  eve  of  dissolution ;  there  came,  as  a  remedy,  an  assem- 
bly of  men  elected  by  the  people. 

'  That,  considered  d  2^^iori,  representative  government 
is  fitted  for  establishing  just  laws,  is  implied  by  the  una- 
nimity with  which  Spanish,  English,  and  French  availed 
themselves  of  it  to  this  end ;  as  well  as  by  the  endeavours 
latterly  made  by  other  European  nations  to  do  the  like. 
The  rationale  of  the  matter  is  simple  enough.     Manifestly, 


THE  BEST  FOB  EFFECTTNG  JUSTICE.  203 

on  the  average  of  cases,  a  man  will  protect  his  own  inter- 
ests more  solicitously  than  others  will  protect  them  for 
him/'^  Manifestly,  where  regulations  have  to  be  made 
affecting  the  interests  of  several  men,  they  are  most  likely 
to  be  equitably  made  when  all  those  concerned  are  pres- 
ent, and  have  equal  shares  in  the  making  of  them.  And 
manifestly,  where  those  concerned  are  so  numerous  and  so 
dispersed,  that  it  is  physically  impossible  for  them  all  to 
take  part  in  the  framing  of  such  regulations,  the  next  best 
thing  is  for  the  citizens  in  each  locality  to  appoint  one  of 
their  number  to  speak  for  them,  to  care  for  their  claims, 
to  be  their  representative.  The  general  principle  is,  that 
the  welfare  of  all  will  be  most  secure  when  each  looks 
after  his  own  welfare ;  and  the  principle  is  carried  out  as 
directly  as  the  circumstances  permit.  It  is  inferable,  alike 
from  human  nature  and  from  history,  that  a  single  man 
cannot  be  trusted  with  the  interests  of  a  nation  of  men, 
where  his  real  or  imagined  interests  clash  with  theirs.  It 
is  similarly  inferable  from  human  nature  and  from  history, 
that  no  small  section  of  a  nation,  as  the  nobles,  can  be  ex- 
pected to  consult  the  welfare  of  the  people  at  large  in  pref- 
erence to  their  own.  And  it  is  further  inferable  that  only 
in  a  general  diffusion  of  political  power,  is  there  a  safe- 
guard for  the  general  welfare.  ~) 

This  has  all  along  been  the  conviction  under  which 
representative  government  has  been  advocated,  main- 
tained, and  extended.  From  the  early  writs  that  sum- 
moned the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons — writs 
which  declared  it  to  be  a  most  equitable  rule  that  the  laws 
which  concerned  all  should  be  approved  of  by  all — down 
to  the  reasons  now  urged  by  the  unenfranchised  for  a  par- 
ticipation in  political  power ;  this  is  the  implied  theory. 
Observe,  nothing  is  said  about  wisdom  or  administrative 
ability.  From  the  beginning,  the  end  in  view  has  been 
justice.    Whether  we  consider  the  question  in  the  abstract, 


204  •   EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

or  whether  we  examine  the  opinions  men  have  entertained 
upon  it  from  old  times  down  to  the  present  day,  we  equally 
see  the  theory  of  representative  government  to  be,  that 
it  is  the  best  means  of  insuring  equitable  social  rela- 
tions. 

And  do  not  the  results  justify  the  theory  ?  Did  not 
our  early  Parliaments,  after  long-continued  struggles, 
succeed  in  curbing  the  licentious  exercise  of  royal  power ; 
and  in  establishing  the  rights  of  the  subject  ?  Are  not 
the  comparative  security  and  justice  enjoyed  under  our 
form  of  government,  indicated  by  the  envy  with  which 
other  nations  regard  it  ?  Was  not  the  election  of  the 
French  Constituent  Assembly  followed  by  the  sweeping 
away  of  the  grievous  burdens  that  weighed  down  the  peo- 
ple— by  the  abolition  of  tithes,  seignorial  dues,  gabelle, 
excessive  preservation  of  game — by  the  withdrawal  of 
numerous  feudal  privileges  and  immunities — by  the  manu- 
mission of  the  slaves  in  the  French  colonies  ?  And  has 
not  that  extension  of  our  own  electoral  system  embodied 
in  the  Reform-Bill,  brought  about  more  equitable  arrange- 
ments ? — as  witness  the  repeal  of  the  Corn-Laws,  and 
the  equalization  of  probate  and  legacy  duties.  The 
proofs  are  undeniable.  It  is  clear,  both  d  priori  and  d 
posteriori,  that  representative  government  is  especially 
adapted  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  just 
laws. 

And  now  mark  that  the  objections  to  representative 
government  awhile  since  urged,  scarcely  tell  against  it  at 
all,  so  long  as  it  does  not  exceed  this  comparatively  lim- 
ited function.  Though  its  mediocrity  of  intellect  makes 
it  incompetent  to  oversee  and  regulate  the  countless  in- 
volved processes  which  make  up  the  national  life ;  it 
nevertheless  has  quite  enough  intellect  to  enact  and  en- 
force those  simple  principles  of  equity  which  underlie  the 
right  conduct  of  citizens  to  each  other.     These  are  such 


WHAT  IT  IS  FITTED  TO   DO.  205 

that  the  commonest  minds  in  a  civilized  community  can 
understand  their  chief  applications.  Stupid  as  may  be 
the  average  elector,  he  can  see  the  propriety  of  such  regu- 
lations as  shall  prevent  men  from  murdering  and  robbing 
each  other ;  he  can  understand  the  fitness  of  laws  which 
enforce  the  payment  of  debts ;  he  can  perceive  the  need  of 
measures  to  prevent  the  strong  from  tyrannizing  over  the 
weak ;  and  he  can  feel  the  rectitude  of  a  judicial  system 
that  is  the  same  for  rich  and  poor.  The  average  represent- 
ative may  be  but  of  small  capacity,  but  he  is  competent, 
under  the  leadership  of  his  wiser  fellows,  to  devise  appli- 
ances for  carrying  out  these  necessary  restraints;  or  rather 
— he  is  competent  to  uphold  the  set  of  appliances  slowly 
elaborated  by  the  many  generations  of  his  predecessors, 
and  to  do  something  towards  improving  and  extending 
them  in  those  directions  where  the  need  is  most  manifest. 
It  is  true  that  even  these  small  demands  upon  electoral 
and  senatorial  wisdom  are  but  imperfectly  met. 

But  though  constituencies  are  blind  to  the  palpable 
truth,  that  if  they  would  escape  laws  which  favour  the 
nobility  at  the  expense  of  the  commonalty,  they  must 
cease  to  choose  representatives  from  among  the  nobility ; 
yet  when  the  injustice  of  this  class-legislation  is  glaring — 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Corn-Laws — they  have  sense  enough 
to  use  means  for  getting  it  abolished.  -  ^  And  though  most 
legislators  have  not  sufficient  penetration  to  perceive  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  evils  which  they  attempt  to  cure 
by  official  inspection  and  regulation,  would  disappear 
were  there  a  certain,  prompt,  and  cheap  administration  of 
justice ;  yet,  the  County-Courts- Act,  and  other  recent 
law-reforms,  show  that  they  do  eventually  recognize  the 
importance  of  more  efficient  judicial  arrangements.  While, 
therefore,  the  lower  average  of  intelligence  which  necessa- 
rily characterizes  representative  government,  unfits  it  for 
discharging  the  complex  business  of  regulating  the  entire 


EEPEESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT. 

national  life  ;  it  does  not  unfit  it  for  discharging  the  com- 
paratively simple  duties  of  protector.  Again,  in  respect 
of  this  original,  all-essential  function  of  a  government, 
there  is  a  much  clearer  identity  of  interest  between  repre- 
sentative and  citizen,  than  in  respect  of  the  multitudinous 
other  functions  which  governments  undertake.  Though  it 
is  generally  of  but  little  consequence  to  the  member  of 
Parliament  whether  state-teachers,  state-preachers,  state- 
officers  of  health,  state-dispensers  of  charity,  etc.,  do  their 
work  well ;  it  is  of  great  personal  consequence  to  him  that 
life  and  property  should  be  secure  :  and  hence  he  is  more 
likely  to  care  for  the  efticient  administration  of  justice, 
than  for  the  efiicient  administration  of  any  thing  else. 

Moreover,  the  complexity,  incongruity  of  parts,  and 
general  cumbrousness  which  deprive  a  representative  gov- 
ernment of  that  activity  and  decision  required  for  pater- 
nally superintending  the  affaii'S  of  thirty  millions  of  citi- 
zens ;  do  not  deprive  it  of  the  ability  to  establish  and 
maintain  the  regulations  by  which  these  citizens  are  pre- 
vented from  trespassing  against  each  other.  ^  Eor  the  prin- 
ciples of  equity  are  permanent  as  well  as  simple  ;  and  once 
having  been  legally  embodied  in  their  chief  outlines,  all 
\  that  devolves  on  a  government  is  to  develop  them  more 
I;  perfectly,  and  improve  the  appliances  for  enforcing  them: 
an  undertaking  for  which  the  slow  and  involved  action  of 
g,  representative  government  does  not  unfit  it.  So  that 
\  while  by  its  origin,  theory,  and  results,  representative 
government  is  shown  to  be  the  best  for  securing  justice 
between  class  and  class,  as  well  as  between  man  and  man ; 
the  objections  which  so  strongly  tell  against  it  in  all  its 
other  relations  to  society,  do  not  tell  against  it  in  this  fun- 
damental relation. 

Thus,  then,  we  reach  the  solution  of  the  paradox. 
Here  is  the  reconciliation  between  the  two  seemingly  con- 
tradictory positions  awhile  since  taken.     To  the  question — 


THE  PURE  SCIENCE  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  207 

1  What  is  representative  government  good  for  ?  our  reply  A 

\s — It  is  good,  especially  good,  good  above  all  others,  for    \ 

doing  the  thing  which  a  government  should  do.     It  is  bad,    J 

especially  bad,  bad  above  all  others,  for  doing  the  things/ 

which  a  government  should  not  do.  T' 

One  point  remains.  We  said,  some  distance  back, 
that  not  only  may  representative  government  be  the  best, 
notwithstanding  its  many  conspicuous  deficiencies ;  but 
that  it  is  even  possible  to  discern  in  these  very  deficiencies) 
further  proofs  of  its  superiority  The  conclusion  just  ar- 
rived at,  implying,  as  it  does,  that  these  deficiencies  tend 
to  hinder  it  from  doing  the  things  which  no  government 
should  do,  has  already  furnished  a  key  to  this  strange- 
looking  assertion.  But  it  will  be  well  here  to  make  a 
more  specific  justification  of  it.  This  brings  us  to  the 
pure  science  of  the  matter. 

The  ever-increasing  complexity  which  characterizes  adA^ 
vancing  societies,  is  a  complexity  that  results  from  the 
multiplication  of  diff*erent  parts  performing  difierent  du-< 
ties.  The  doctrine  of  the  division  of  labour,  is  now-a-days 
understood  by  most  to  some  extent ;  and  most  know  that 
by  this  division  of  labour,  each  operative,  each  manufac- 
turer, each  town,  each  district,  is  constantly  more  and 
more  restricted  to  one  kind  of  work.*^  Those  who  study 
the  organization  of  living  bodies,  find  the  uniform  process 
of  development  to  be,  that  each  organ  gradually  acquires 
a  definite  and  limited  function  :  there  arises,  step  by  step, 
a  more  perfect  "  physiological  division  of  labour."  And 
in  an  article  on  "  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause,"  published 
in  our  April  number,  we  pointed  out  that  this  increasing 
specialization  of  functions  which  goes  on  in  all  organized 
bodies,  social  as  well  as  individual,  is  one  of  the  manifes- 
tations of  a  still  more  general  process  pervading  creation, 
inorganic  as  well  as  organi:-. 


208  EEPEESENTATIVE   GOVEENMENT. 

Now  this  specialization  of  functions,  which  is  the  law 
of  all  organization,  has  a  twofold  implication.  At  the 
same  time  that  each  part  grows  adapted  to  the  particular 
duty  it  has  to  discharge,  it  grows  unadapted  to  all  other 
duties.  The  becoming  especially  fit  for  one  thing,  is  a  be- 
coming less  fit  than  before  for  every  thing  else.  7  We  have 
not  space  here  to  exemplify  this  truth.  Any  modern  work 
on  physiology,  however,  will  furnish  the  reader  with 
abundant  illustrations  of  it,  as  exhibited  in  the  evolution 
of  living:  creatures :  and  as  exhibited  in  the  evolution  of 
societies,  it  may  be  studied  in  the  writings  of  political 
economists.  L  All  which  we  wish  here  to  point  out  is,  that 
the  governmental  part  of  the  body  politic  exemplifies  this 
truth  equally  with  its  other  parts.  In  virtue  of  this  uni- 
versal law,  a  government  cannot  gain  ability  to  perform 
its  special  work,  without  losing  such  ability  as  it  had  to 
perform  other  work.   ' 

This  then  is,  as  we  say,  the  pure  sciepce  of  the  matter, 
^^^he  original  and  essential  office  of  a  government  is  that 
of  protecting  its  subjects  against  aggression^  In  low,  un- 
developed forms  of  society,  where  yet  there  is  but  little 
difierentiation  of  parts,  and  little  specialization  of  functions, 
this  essential  work,  discharged  with  extreme  imperfection, 
is  joined  with  endless  other  work :  the  government  has  a 
controlling  action  over  all  conduct,  individual  and  social — 
regulates  dress,  food,  ablutions,  prices,  trade,  religion — 
exercises  unbounded  power.  In  becoming  so  constituted 
as  to  discharge  better  its  essential  function,  the  govern- 
ment becomes  more  limited  alike  in  the  power  and  the 
habit  of  doing  other  things.  Increasing  ability  to 'per- 
form its  true  duty,  involves  increasing  inability  to  perform 
all  other  kinds  of  action.  And  this  conclusion,  deducible 
from  the  universal  law  of  organization,  is  the  conclusion 
to  which  inductive  reasoning  has  already  led  us.  We 
have  seen  that,  whether  considered  in  theory  or  practice, 


PHILOSOPHIC   CLAIMS   OF   THE   DISCUSSION.  209 

representative  government  is  the  best  for  securing  justice/ 
We  have  also  seen  that,  whether  considered  in  theory  or 

practice,  it  is  the  worst  for  all  otl^er  p^irpospa A.nd  here 

we  find  that  this  last  characteristic  is  a  necessary  accom- 
paniment of  the  first.  These  various  incapacities,  which 
seem  to  tell  so  seriously  against  the  goodness  of  repre- 
sentative government,  are  but  the  inevitable  consequences 
of  its  more  complete  adaptation  to  its  proper  work  ;  and, 
so  understood,  are  themselves  indications  that  it  is  the 
form  of  government  natural  to  a  more  highly-organized 
and  advanced  social  state.  7 

We  do  not  expect  this  consideration  to  weigh  much 
with  those  whom  it  most  concerns.  Truths  of  so  abstract 
a  character  find  no  favour  with  senates.  The  metamor- 
phosis we  have  described  is  not  mentioned  in  Ovid.  His- 
tory as  at  present  written,  makes  no  comments  on  it. 
There  is  nothing  about  it  to  be  found  in  blue-books  and 
committee-reports.  Neither  is  it  proved  by  statistics. 
Evidently,  then,  it  has  but  small  chance  of  recognition 
by  the  "  practical "  legislator.  But  to  the  select  few  who 
study  the  Social  Science,  properly  so  called,  we  commend 
this  general  fact  as  one  of  the  highest  significance.  Those 
who  know  something  of  the  general  laws  of  life,  and  who 
perceive  that  these  general  laws  of  life  underlie  all  social 
phenomena,  will  see  that  this  dual  change  in  the  character 
of  advanced  governments,  involves  an  answer  to  the  first 
of  all  political  questions.  They  will  see  that  this  speciali- 
zation in  virtue  of  which  an  advanced  government  gains 
power  to  perform  one  function,  while  it  loses  power  to 
perform  others,  clearly  indicates  the  ti*ue  limitations  of 
State-duty.  They  will  see  that,  even  leaving  out  all  other 
evidence,  this  fact  alone  shows  conclusively  what  is  the 
proper  sphere  of  legislation. 


VI. 

PKISON-ETHICS. 


THE  two  antagonist  theories  of  morals,  like  many- 
other  antagonist  theories,  are  both  right  and  both 
wrong.  The  d  priori  school  has  its  truth ;  the  d  posteriori 
school  has  its  truth ;  and  for  the  proper  guidance  of  con- 
duct, there  must  be  due  recognition  of  both.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  asserted  that  there  is  an  absolute  standard  of 
rectitude ;  and,  respecting  certain  classes  of  actions,  it  is 
rightly  so  asserted.  From  the  fundamental  laws  of  life 
and  the  conditions  of  social  existence,  are  deducible  cer- 
tain imperative  limitations  to  individual  action — limita- 
tions which  are  essential  to  a  perfect  life,  individual  and 
social ;  or,  in  other  words,  essential  to  the  greatest  possi- 
ble happiness.  And  these  limitations,  following  inevitably 
as  they  do  from  undeniable  first  principles,  deep  as  the 
nature  of  life  itself,  constitute  what  we  may  distinguish  as 
absolute  morality. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  contended,  and  in  a  sense 
rightly  contended,  that  with  men  as  they  are,  and  society 
as  it  is,  the  dictates  of  absolute  morality  are  impracticable. 
Legal  control,  which  involves  the  infliction  of  pain,  alike 
on  those  who  are  restrained  and  on  those  who  pay  the 
cost  of  restraining  them,  is  proved  by  this  fact  to  be  not 


EELATIVE  AND   ABSOLUTE  RIGHT.  211 

absolutely  moral;  seeing  that  absolute  morality  is  the 
regulation  of  conduct  in  such  way  that  pain  shall  not  be 
inflicted.  "Wherefore,  if  it  be  admitted  that  legal  control 
is  at  present  indispensable,  it  must  be  admitted  that  these 
d  priori  rules  cannot  be  immediately  carried  out.  And 
hence  it  follows  that  we  must  adapt  our  laws  and  actions 
to  the  existing  character  of  mankind — that  we  must  esti- 
mate the  good  or  evil  resulting  from  this  or  that  arrange- 
ment, and  so  reach,  d  posteriori,  a  code  fitted  for  the  time 
being.  In  short,  we  must_fall  back  on  expediency.  Now, 
each  of  these  positions  being  valid,  it  is  a  grave  mistake 
to  adopt  either  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  They  should 
be  respectively  appealed  to  for  mutual  qualification.  Pro- 
gressing civilization,  which  is  of  necessity  a  succession  of 
compromises  between  old  and  new,  requires  a  perpetual 
readjustment  of  the  compromise  between  the  ideal  and 
the  practicable  in  social  arrangements  :  to  which  end  both 
elements"  of  the  compromise  must  be  kept  in  view;  If  it 
is  true  that  pure  rectitude  prescribes  a  system  of  things 
far  too  good  for  men  as  they  are  ;  it  is  not  less  true  that 
mere  expediency  does  not  of  itself  tend  to  establish  a  sys- 
tem of  things  any  better  than  that  which  exists.  While 
absolute  morality  owes  to  expediency  the  checks  which 
prevent  it  from  rushing  into  Utopian  absurdities ;  expe- 
diency is  indebted  to  absolute  morality  for  all  stimulus  to 
improvement. 

Granted  that  we  are  chiefly  interested  in  ascertaining 
what  is  relatively  right  /  it  still  follows  that  we  must  first 
consider  what  is  absolutely  right ;  since  the  one  concep- 
tion presupposes  the  other.  That  is  to  say,  though  we 
must  ever  aim  to  do  what  is  best  for  the  present  times,  yet 
we  must  ever  bear  in  mind  what  is  abstractedly  best ;  so 
that  the  changes  we  make  may  be  towards  it,  and  not  away 
from  it.  Unattainable  as  pure  rectitude  is,  and  may  long 
continue  to  be,  we  must  keep  an  eye  on  the  compass  which 


212  PEISON-ETHICS. 

tells  us  whereabout  it  lies ;  or  we  shall  otherwise  be  liable 
to  wander  in  some  quite  opposite  direction. 

Illustrations  from  our  recent  history  will  show  very 
conclusively,  we  think,  how  important  it  is  that  considera- 
tions of  abstract  expediency  should  be  joined  with  those 
of  concrete  expediency — how  immense  would  be  the  evils 
avoided  and  the  benefits  gained,  if  d  posteriori  morality 
were  enlightened  by  d  priori  morality.  Take  first  the 
case  of  free  trade.  Until  recently  it  has  been  the  practice 
of  all  nations  in  all  times,  artificially  to  restrict  their  com- 
merce with  other  nations.  Throughout  past  centuries 
this  course  may  have  been  defensible  as  conducing  to 
safety.  Without  saying  that  lawgivers  had  the  motive  of 
promoting  industrial  independence,  it  may  yet  be  said 
that  in  ages  when  national  quarrels  were  perpetual,  it 
would  not  have  been  well  for  any  people  to  be  much  de- 
pendent on  others  for  necessary  commodities.  But  though 
there  is  this  ground  for  asserting  that  commercial  restric- 
tions were  once  expedient,  it  cannot  be  asserted  that  our 
corn-laws  were  thus  justified :  it  cannot  be  alleged  that 
the  penalties  and  prohibitions  which,  until  lately,  ham- 
pered our  trade,  were  needful  to  prevent  us  from  being 
industrially  disabled  by  a  war.  Protection  in  all  its  forms 
was  established  and  maintained  for  other  reasons  of  expe- 
diency; and  the  reasons  for  which  it  was  opposed  and 
finally  abolished  were  also  those  of  expediency.  Calcula- 
tions of  immediate  and  remote  consequences  were  set 
forth  by  the  antagonist  parties ;  and  the  mode  of  decis- 
ion was  by  a  balancing  of  these  various  anticipated  con- 
sequences. 

And  what,  after  generations  of  mischievous  legislation 
and  long  years  of  arduous  struggle,  was  the  conclusion 
arrived  at,  and  since  justified  by  the  results  ?  Exactly  the 
one  which  abstract  equity  plainly  teaches.  The  moral 
course  proves  to  be  the  politic  course.     That  ability  to 


INDICATIONS   OF  ABSOLUTE  MOEALITY.  213 

exercise  the  faculties,  the  total  denial  of  which  causes 
death — ^that  liberty  to  pursue  the  objects  of  desire,  with- 
out which  there  cannot  be  complete  life — that  freedom  of 
action  which  his  nature  prompts  every  individual  to  claim, 
and  on  which  equity  puts  no  limit  save  the  like  freedom 
of  action  of  other  individuals,  involves,  among  other  corol- 
laries, freedom  of  exchange.  L  Government  which,  in  pro- 
tecting citizens  from  murder,  robbery,  assault,  or  other 
aggression,  shows  us  that  it  has  the  all-essential  function 
of  securing  to  each  this  free  exercise  of  faculties  within 
the  assigned  limits,  is  called  on,  in  the  due  discharge  of  its 
function,  to  maintain  this  freedom  of  exchange  ;  and  can- 
not abrogate  it  without  reversing  its  function,  and  becom- 
ing aggressor  instead  of  protector.  Thus,  absolute 
morality  would  all  along  have  shown  in  what  direction 
legislation  should  tend.  Qualified  only  by  the  considera- 
tion that  in  turbulent  times  they  must  not  be  so  carried 
out  as  to  endanger  national  life,  through  suspensions  in 
the  supply  of  necessaries,  these  d,  priori  principles  w^ould 
have  guided  statesmen,  as  fast  as  circumstances  allowed, 
towards  the  normal  condition.  We  should  have  been 
saved  from  thousands  of  needless  restrictions.  Such  re- 
strictions as  were  needful  would  have  been  abolished  as 
soon  as  was  safe.  An  enormous  amount  of  suffering 
would  have  been  prevented.  J  That  prosperity  which  we 
now  enjoy  would  have  commenced  much  sooner.  And 
our  present  condition  would  have  been  one  of  far  greater 
power,  wealth,  happiness,  and  morality. 

Our  railway-politics  furnish  another  instance.  A  vast 
loss  of  national  capital  has  been  incurred,  and  great  misery 
has  been  inflicted,  in  consequence  of  the  neglect  of  a  sim- 
ple principle  clearly  dictated  by  abstract  justice.  Whoso 
enters  into  a  contract,  though  he  is  bound  to  do  that 
which  the  contract  specifies,  is  not  bound  to  do  some  other 
thing  which  is  neither  specified  nor  implied  in  the  con- 


214  PEISON-ETHICS. 

tract.  We  do  not  appeal  to  moral  perception  only  in 
warranty  of  this  position.  It  is  one  deducible  from  that 
first  principle  of  equity  which,  as  above  pointed  out,  fol- 
lows from  the  laws  of  life,  individual  and  social ;  and  it  is 
one  which  the  accumulated  experience  of  mankind  has  so 
uniformly  justified,  that  is  has  become  a  tacitly-recog- 
nized doctrine  of  civil  law  among  all  nations.  In  cases  of 
dispute  respecting  agreements,  the  question  brought  to 
trial  always  is,  whether  the  terms  of  the  agreement  bind 
one  or  other  of  the  contracting  parties  to  do  this  or  that ; 
and  it  is  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  neither  of 
them  can  be  called  upon  to  do  more  than  is  expressed  or 
understood  in  the  agreement. 

Now,  this  almost  self-evident  principle  has  been  wholly 
ignored  in  railway-legislation.  A  shareholder,  uniting 
with  others  to  make  and  work  a  line  from  one  specified 
place  to  another  specified  place,  binds  himself  to  pay  cer- 
tain sums  in  furtherance  of  the  project ;  and,  by  implica- 
tion, agrees  to  yield  to  the  majority  of  his  fellow-share- 
holders on  all  questions  raised  respecting  the  execution  of 
this  project.  But  he  commits  himself  no  further  than  this. 
He  is  not  required  to  obey  the  majority  concerning  things 
not  named  in  the  deed  of  incorporation.  Though  with 
respect  to  the  specified  railway  he  has  bound  himself,  he 
has  not  bound  himself  with  respect  to  any  unspecified 
railway  which  his  co-proprietors  may  wish  to  make :  and 
he  cannot  be  committed  to  such  unspecified  railway  by  a 
vote  of  the  majority.  But  this  distinction  has  been  wholly 
passed  over.  Shareholders  in  joint-stock  undertakings, 
have  been  perpetually  involved  in  various  other  under- 
takings subsequently  decided  on  by  their  fellow-share- 
holders ;  and  against  their  will  have  had  theii;  properties 
heavily  mortaged  for  the  execution  of  projects  that  were 
ruinously  unremunerative.  In  every  case  the  proprietary 
contract  for  making  a  particular  railway,  has  been  dealt 


BEQUIKEMENT8   OF  ABSOLUTE   ETHICS.  215 

with  as  though  it  were  a  proprietary  contract  for  making  ^ 
railways !  Not  only  have  directors  thus  misinterpreted 
it,  and  not  only  have  shareholders  foolishly  allowed  it  to 
be  thus  misinterpreted ;  but  legislators  have  so  little  un- 
derstood their  duties,  as  to  have  constantly  endorsed  the 
misinterpretation.  To  this  simple  cause  has  been  owing 
most  of  our  railway-companies'  disasters.  Abnormal 
facilities  for  getting  capital  have  caused  reckless  competi- 
tion in  extension-making  and  branch-making,  and  the  pro- 
jection of  needless  opposition  lines,  got  up  to  be  purchased 
by  the  companies  they  threatened.  Had  each  new  scheme 
been  executed  by  an  independent  body  of  shareholders, 
without  any  guarantee  from  another  company — without 
any  capital  raised  by  preference-shares,  there  would  have 
been  little  or  none  of  the  ruinous  expenditure  we  have 
seen.  Something  like  a  hundred  millions  of  money  would 
have  been  saved,  and  thousands  of  families  preserved  from 
misery,  had  the  proprietary-contract  been  enforced  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  pure  equity. 

We  think  these  cases  go  far  to  justify  our  position. 
The  general  reasons  we  gave  for  thinking  that  the  ethics 
of  immediate  experience  must  be  enlightened  by  abstract 
ethics,  to  ensure  correct  guidance,  are  strongly  enforced 
by  these  instances  of  the  gigantic  errors  that  are  made 
when  abstract  ethics  are  ignored.  The  complex  esti- 
mates of  relative  expediency,  cannot  do  without  the 
clue  furnished  by  the  simple  deductions  of  absolute  ex- 
pediency. 

We  propose  to  study  the  treatment  of  criminals  from 
this  point  of  view.  And  first,  let  us  set  down  those  tem- 
porary requirements  which  have  hitherto  prevented,  and 
do  still,  in  part,  prevent  the  establishment  of  a  perfectly 
just  system. 

The  same  average  popular  character  which  necessitates 


216  PEISON-ETHICS. 

a  rigorous  form  of  government,  necessitates  also  a  rigor- 
ous criminal  code.  Institutions  are  ultimately  determined 
by  the  natures  of  the  citizens  living  under  them  ;  and  when 
these  citizens  are  too  impulsive  or  selfish  for  free  institu- 
tions, and  unscrupulous  enough  to  supply  the  requisite  staff 
of  agents  for  maintaining  tyrannical  institutions,  they  are 
proved  by  implication  to  be  citizens  who  will  both  toler- 
ate, and  will  probably  need,  severe  forms  of  punishment. 
The  same  mental  defect  underlies  both  results.  The  char- 
acter which  originates  and  sustains  political  liberty,  is  a 
character  swayed  by  remote  considerations — a  character 
not  at  the  mercy  of  immediate  temptations,  but  one  which 
contemplates  the  consequences  likely  to  arise  in  future. 
We  have  only  to  remember  that,  among  ourselves,  a 
political  encroachment  is  resisted,  not  because  of  any  di- 
rect evil  it  inflicts,  but  because  of  the  evils  likely  hereaf- 
ter to  flow  from  it,  to  see  how  the  maintenance  of  freedom 
presupposes  the  habit  of  weighing  distant  results,  and 
being  chiefly  guided  by  them. 

Conversely,  it  is  manifest  that  men  who  dwell  only  in 
the  present,  the  special,  the  concrete — who  do  not  realize 
with  clearness  the  contingencies  of  the  future — will  put 
little  value  on  those  rights  of  citizenship  which  profit  them 
nothing,  save  as  a  means  of  warding  off  unspecified  evils 
that  can  possibly  affect  them  only  at  a  distant  time  in  an 
obscure  way.  Well,  is  it  not  obvious  that  the  forms  of 
mind  thus  contrasted,  will  require  different  kinds  of  pun- 
ishment for  misconduct  ?  To  restrain  the  second,  there 
must  be  penalties  that  are  severe,  prompt,  and  specific 
enough  to  be  vividly  conceived ;  while  the  first  may  be 
deterred  by  penalties  that  are  less  definite,  less  intense, 
less  immediate.  For  the  more  civilized,  dread  of  a  long, 
monotonous,  criminal  discipline  may  suffice;  but  for  the  less 
civilized  there  must  be  inflictions  of  bodily  pain  and  death. 
Thus  we  hold,  not  only  that  a  social  condition  which  gen* 


WHEN   PENAL   CODES   MUST  BE   SEVERER.  217 

erates  a  harsh  form  of  government,  also  of  necessity  gen- 
erates harsh  retributions ;  but  also,  that  in  such  a  social 
condition,  harsh  retributions  are  requisite.  And  there  are 
facts  which  illustrate  this.  Witness  the  case  of  one  of  the 
Italian  states,  in  which  the  punishment  of  death  having 
been  abolished  in  conformity  with  the  wish  of  a  dying 
duchess,  assassinations  increased  so  greatly  that  it  became 
needful  to  reestablish  it. 

Besides  the  fact  that  in  the  less-advanced  stages  of 
civilization,  a  bloody  penal  code  is  both  a  natural  product 
of  the  time,  and  a  needful  restraint  for  the  time ;  there 
must  be  noted  the  fact  that  a  more  equitable  and  humane 
code  could  not  be  carried  out  from  want  of  fit  administra- 
tion. To  deal  with  delinquents,  not  by  short  and  sharp 
methods,  but  by  such  methods  as  abstract  justice  indi- 
cates, implies  a  class  of  agencies  too  complicated  to  exist 
under  a  low  social  state,  and  a  class  of  officers  more  trust- 
worthy than  can  be  found  among  the  citizens  in  such  a 
state.  Especially  would  the  equitable  treatment  of  crimi- 
nals be  impracticable  where  the  amount  of  crime  was  very 
great.  The  number  to  be  dealt  with  would  be  unman- 
ageable. Some  simpler  method  of  purging  the  community 
of  its  worst  members  becomes,  under  such  circumstances, 
a  necessity. 

The  inapplicability  of  an  absolutely  just  system  of 
penal  discipline  to  a  barbarous  or  semi-barbarous  people, 
is  thus,  we  think,  as  manifest  as  is  the  inapplicability  of 
an  absolutely  just  form  of  government  to  them.  And  in 
the  same  manner  that,  for  some  nations,  a  despotism  is 
warranted;  so  may  a  criminal  code  of  the  extremest 
severity  be  warranted.  In  either  case  the  defence  is,  that 
the  institution  is  as  good  as  the  average  character  of  the 
people  permits — that  less  stringent  institutions  would  en- 
tail social  confusion  and  its  far  more  severe  evils.  Bad  as 
a  despotism  is,  yet  where  anarchy  is  the  only  alternative, 
10 


218  PEISON-ETHICS. 

we  must  say  that,  as  anarchy  would  bring  greater  suffer- 
ing than  despotism  brings,  despotism  is  justified  by  the 
circumstances.  And  similarly,  however  inequitable  in 
the  abstract  were  the  beheadings,  hangings,  and  burnings 
of  ruder  ages,  yet,  if  it  be  shown  that,  mthout  penalties 
thus  extreme,  the  safety  of  society  could  not  have  been 
insured — if,  in  their  absence,  the  increase  of  crime  would 
have  inflicted  a  larger  total  of  evil,  and  that,  too,  on 
peaceable  members  of  the  community ;  then  it  follows  that 
morality  warranted  this  severity.  In  the  one  case,  as  in 
the  other,  we  must  say  that,  measured  by  the  quantities 
of  pain  respectively  inflicted  and  avoided,  the  course  pur- 
sued was  the  least  wrong  /  and  to  say  that  it  was  the  least 
wrong  is  to  say  that  it  was  relatively  right. 

But  while  we  thus  admit  all  that  can  be  alleged  by 
the  defenders  of  Draconian  codes,  we  go  on  to  assert  a 
correlative  truth  which  they  overlook.  While  fully 
recognizing  the  evils  that  must  follow  the  premature 
establishment  of  a  penal  system  dictated  by  pure  equity, 
let  us  not  overlook  the  evils  that  have  arisen  from 
altogether  rejecting  the  guidance  of  pure  equity.  Let  us 
note  how  tenibly  the  one-sided  regard  for  immediate  ex- 
pediency has  retarded  the  ameliorations  from  time  to  time 
demanded. 

Consider,  for  instance,  the  immense  amount  of  suffer- 
ing and  demoralization  needlessly  caused  by  our  severe 
laws  in  the  last  century.  Those  many  merciless  penalties 
which  Romilly  and  others  succeeded  in  abolishing,  were 
as  little  justified  by  social  necessities  as  by  abstract 
morality.  Experience  has  since  proved  that  to  hang  men 
for  theft,  was  not  requisite  for  the  security  of  property ; 
and  that  such  a  measure  was  opposed  to  pure  equity, 
scarcely  needs  saying.  Evidently,  had  considerations  of 
relative  expediency  been  all  along  qualified  by  considera- 
tions of  absolute  expediency,  these  severities,  with  their 


EFFECTS  OF  BAEBAEOUS  DISCIPLINE.  219 

many  concomitant  evils,  would  have  ceased  long  before 
they  did. 

Again,  the  dreadful  misery,  demoralization,  and  crime, 
generated  by  the  harsh  treatment  of  transported  convicts, 
would  have  been  impossible,  had  our  authorities  consid- 
ered what  seemed  just  as  well  as  what  seemed  politic. 
There  would  never  have  been  inflicted  on  transports  the 
shocking  cruelties  proved  before  the  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee of  1848.  We  should  not  have  had  men  condemned 
to  the  horrors  of  the  chain-gang  even  for  insolent  looks. 
There  could  not  have  been  perpetrated  such  an  atrocity 
as  that  of  locking  up  chain-gangs  "  from  sunset  to  sunrise 
in  the  caravans  or  boxes  used  for  this  description  of  pris- 
ons, which  hold  from  twenty  to  twenty-eight  men,  but  in 
which  the  whole  number  can  neither  stand  upright  nor 
sit  down  at  the  same  time,  except  with  their  legs  at  right 
angles  to  their  bodies,'*''  Men  would  never  have  been 
doomed  to  tortures  extreme  enough  to  produce  despair, 
desperation,  and  further  crimes — tortures  under  which  "  a 
man's  heart  is  taken  from  him,  and  there  is  given  to  him 
the  heart  of  a  beast,"  as  said  by  one  of  these  law-produced 
criminals  before  his  execution.  We  should  not  have  been 
told,  as  by  a  chief  justice  of  Australia,  that  the  discipline 
was  "  carried  to  an  extent  of  suffering,  such  as  to  render 
death  desirable,  and  to  induce  many  prisoners  to  seeJc  it 
under  its  most  appalling  aspects.''''  Sir  G.  Arthur  would 
not  have  had  to  testify  that,  in  Van  Diemen's  Land,  con- 
victs committed  murder  for  the  purpose  "  of  being  sent  up 
to  Hobart  Town  for  trial,  though  aware  that  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  they  must  be  executed  within  a  fortnight  after 
arrival; "  nor  would  tears  of  commiseration  have  been 
drawn  from  Judge  Burton's  eyes,  by  one  of  these  cruelly- 
used  transports  placed  before  him  for  sentence.  In  brief, 
had  abstract  equity  joined  with  immediate  expediency  in 
devising  convict  discipline,  not  only  would  untold  suffer- 


220  PEISON-ETHICS. 

ing,  degradation,  and  mortality  have  been  prevented ;  but 
those  who  were  responsible  for  atrocities  like  those  above- 
named,  would  not  themselves  be  chargeable  with  ciime, 
as  we  now  hold  them  to  be. 

Probably  we  shall  meet  with  a  less  general  assent 
when,  as  a  further  benefit  which  the  guidance  of  absolute 
morality  would  have  conferred,  we  instance  the  preven- 
tion of  such  methods  as  those  in  use  at  Pentonville.  How 
the  silent  and  the  separate  systems  are  negatived  by  ab- 
stract justice  we  shall  by  and  by  see.  For  the  present, 
the  position  we  have  to  defend  is,  that  these  systems  are 
bad.  That  but  a  moderate  percentage  of  the  prisoners 
subjected  to  them  are  reconvicted,  may  be  true ;  though, 
considering  the  fallaciousness  of  negative  statistics,  this 
by  no  means  proves  that  those  not  reconvicted  are  re- 
formed. But  the  question  is  not  solely,  how  many  pris- 
oners are  prevented  from  again  committing  crime  ?  A 
further  question  is,  how  many  of  them  have  become  self- 
supporting  members  of  society  ?  It  is  notorious  that  this 
prolonged  denial  of  human  intercourse  not  unfrequently 
produces  insanity  or  imbecility;  and  on  those  who  re- 
main sane,  its  depressing  influence  must  almost  of  necessity 
entail  serious  debility,  bodily  and  mental.* 

Indeed,  we  think  it  probable  that  much  of  the  apparent 
success  is  due  to  an  enfeeblement  which  incapacitates  for 
crime  as  much  as  for  industry.  Our  own  objection  to 
such  methods,  however,  has  always  been,  that  their  effect 
on  the  moral  nature  is  the  very  reverse  of  that  required. 
Crime  is  anti-social — is  prompted  by  self-regarding  feel- 
ings, and  checked  by  social  feelings.     The  natural  prompt- 

*  Mr.  Baillie-Cochrane  says :— "  The  officers  at,  the  Dartmoor  prison 
inform  me  that  the  prisoners  who  arrive  there  even  after  one  year's  confine- 
ment at  Pentonville,  may  be  distinguished  from  the  others  by  their  misera- 
ble downcast  look.  In  most  instances  their  brain  is  affected,  and  they  are 
unable  to  give  satisfactory  replies  to  the  simplest  questions." 


BAD   EFFECTS   OF  THE   SOLITAEY   SYSTEM.  221 

er  of  right  conduct  to  others,  and  the  natural  opponent 
of  misconduct  to  others,  is  sympathy;  for  out  of  sympathy 
grow  both  the  kindly  emotions,  and  that  sentiment  of 
justice  which  restrains  us  from  aggressions.  Well,  this 
sympathy,  which  makes  society  possible,  is  cultivated  by 
social  intercourse.  By  habitual  participation  in  the  pleas- 
ures of  others,  the  faculty  is  strengthened ;  and  whatever 
prevents  this  participation,  weakens  it — an  effect  com- 
monly illustrated  in  the  selfishness  of  old  bachelors. 
Hence,  therefore,  we  contend  that  shutting  up  prisoners 
within  themselves,  or  forbidding  all  interchange  of  feeling, 
inevitably  deadens  such  sympathies  as  they  have ;  and  so 
tends  rather  to  diminish  than  to  increase  the  moral  check 
to  transgression.  This  d  priori  conviction,  which  we  have 
long  entertained,  we  now  find  confirmed  by  facts.  Cap- 
tain Maconochie  states,  as  a  result  of  observation,  that  a 
long  course  of  separation  so  fosters  the  self-regarding 
desires,  and  so  weakens  the  sympathies,  as  to  make  even 
well-disposed  men  very  unfit  to  bear  the  little  trials  of 
domestic  life  on  their  return  to  their  homes.  Thus  there 
is  good  reason  to  think  that,  while  silence  and  solitude 
may  cow  the  spirit  or  undermine  the  energies,  it  cannot 
produce  true  reformation. 

"But  how  can  it  be  shown,"  asks  the  reader,  "that 
these  injudicious  penal  systems  are  inequitable  ?  Where 
is  the  method  which  will  enable  us  to  say  what  kind  of 
punishment  is  justified  by  absolute  morality,  and  what 
kind  is  not  ? "  These  questions  we  will  now  attempt  to 
answer. 

So  long  as  the  individual  citizen  pursues  the  objects  of 
his  desires  without  diminishing  the  equal  freedom  of  any 
of  his  fellow-citizens  to  do  the  like,  society  cannot  equita- 
bly interfere  with  him.  While  he  contents  himself  with 
the  benefits  won  by  his  own  energies,  and  attempts  not  to 


222  PEISON-ETHICS. 

intercept  any  of  the  benefits  similarly  won  for  themselves 
by  others,  or  any  of  those  which  Nature  has  conferred  on 
them ;  no  legal  penalties  can  rightly  be  inflicted  on  him. 
But  when,  by  murder,  theft,  assault,  or  minor  aggression, 
he  has  broken  through  these  limits,  the  community  is 
warranted  alike  by  absolute  and  by  relative  expediency 
in  putting  him  under  restraint.  On  the  relative  expedi- 
ency of  doing  this  we  need  say  nothing :  it  is  demon- 
strated by  social  experience.  Its  absolute  expediency  not 
being  so  manifest,  we  will  proceed  to  point  out  how  it  is 
deducible  from  the  ultimate  laws  of  life. 

All  life  depends  on  the  maintenance  of  certain  natural 
relations  between  actions  and  their  results.  This  is  true 
of  life  in  both  its  lowest  and  its  highest  forms.  K  respira- 
tion does  not  supply  oxygen  to  the  blood,  as  in  the 
normal  order  of  things  it  should  do,  but  instead  supplies 
carbonic  acid,  death  very  soon  results.  If  the  swallowing 
of  food  is  not  followed  by  the  usual  organic  sequences — 
the  contractions  of  the  stomach,  and  the  pouring  into  it 
of  gastric  juice — ^indigestion  arises,  and  the  energies  flag. 
If  active  movements  of  the  limbs  fail  in  exciting  the  heart 
to  supply  blood  more  rapidly,  or  if  the  extra  current  pro- 
pelled by  the  heart  is  greatly  retarded  by  an  aneurism 
through  which  it  passes,  speedy  prostration  ensues — 
vitality  rapidly  ebbs.  In  which,  and  endless  like  cases, 
we  see  that  bodily  life  depends  on  the  maintenance  of  the 
established  connections  between  physiological  causes  and 
their  consequences. 

Among  the  intellectual  processes,  the  same  thing 
holds.  If  certain  impressions  made  on  the  senses  do  not 
induce  the  appropriate  muscular  adjustments — if  the  brain 
is  clouded  with  wine,  or  consciousness  is  preoccupied,  or 
the  perceptions  are  naturally  obtuse;  the  bodily  move- 
ments are  so  ill-controlled  that  accidents  ensue.  Where, 
as  in  paralytic  patients,  the  natural  link  between  mental 


CONDITIONS  TO   COMPLETE  LIFE. 

impressions  and  the  appropriate  movements  is  broken,  tlie 
life  is  greatly  vitiated.  And  when,  as  during  insanity, 
evidence  fitted,  according  to  the  usual  order  of  thought, 
to  produce  certain  convictions,  produces  convictions  of  an 
opposite  kind ;  conduct  is  reduced  to  chaos,  and  life  en- 
dangered or  cut  short.  So  it  is  with  the  more  involved 
phenomena.  Just  as  we  here  find  that,  throughout  both 
its  physical  and  intellectual  divisions,  healthful  life  im- 
plies continuance  of  the  established  successions  of  antece- 
dents and  consequents  among  our  vital  actions ;  so  shall 
we  find  it  throughout  the  moral  division.  In  our  dealings 
with  external  Nature  and  our  fellow  men,  there  are  rela- 
tions of  cause  and  effect,  on  the  maintenance  of  which,  as 
on  the  maintenance  of  the  internal  ones  above  instanced, 
complete  life  depends.  Conduct  of  this  or  that  kind  tends 
ever  to  bring  results  which  are  pleasurable  or  painful — 
action  to  bring  its  appropriate  reaction ;  and  the  welfare 
of  every  one  demands  that  these  natural  connections  shall 
not  be  interfered  with. 

To  speak  more  specifically,  we  see  that  in  the  order  of 
Nature,  inactivity  entails  want ;  and  that,  conversely,  by 
activity  are  secured  the  means  of  material  benefit.  '^  There 
is  an  ordained  connection  between  exertion  and  the  fulfil- 
ment of  certain  imperative  needs.  If,  now,  this  ordained 
connection  is  broken — if  labour  of  body  and  mind  have 
been  gone  through,  and  the  produce  of  the  labour  is  inter- 
cepted by  another,  one  of  the  conditions  to  complete  life 
is  unfulfilled.  The  defrauded  person  is  physically  injured 
by  deprival  of  the  wherewithal  to  make  good  the  wear 
and  tear  he  had  undergone ;  and  if  the  robbery  be  con- 
tinually repeated,  he  must  die.  Where  all  men  are  dis- 
honest a  reflex  evil  results.  When,  throughout  a  society, 
the  natural  relation  between  labour  and  its  produce  is 
habitually  broken,  the  lives  of  many  are  not  only  directly 
undermined ;   but  the  lives  of  all   are  indirectly  under- 


224  PBIS0N-ETHIC8. 

mined  by  the  destruction  of  the  motive  for  labour,  and  by 
the  consequent  poverty.  Thus,  to  demand  that  there  shall 
be  no  breach  of  the  normal  sequence  between  labour  and 
the  benefits  obtained  by  labour,  is  to  demand  that  the  laws 
of  life  shall  be  respected. 

What  we  call  the  right  of  property,  is  simply  a 
corollary  from  certain  necessary  conditions  to  complete 
existence  :  it  is  a  formulated  recognition  of  the  necessary 
relation  between  expenditure  of  force  and  the  need  for 
force-sustaining  objects  obtainable  by  the  expenditure  of 
force — a  recognition  in  full  of  a  relation  which  cannot  be 
wholly  ignored  without  causing  death.  And  all  else 
regarded  as  individual  rights,  are  indirect  implications  of 
like  nature — similarly  insist  on  certain  relations  between 
man  and  man,  as  conditions  without  which  there  cannot 
be  completely  maintained  that  correspondence  between 
inner  and  outer  actions  which  constitutes  life.  It  is  not, 
as  some  moralists  have  absurdly  asserted,  that  such  rights 
are  derived  from  human  legislation ;  nor  is  it,  as  asserted 
by  others  with  absurdity  almost  as  great,  that  there  is  no 
basis  for  them  save  the  inductions  of  immediate  expedi- 
ency. These  rights  are  deducible  from  the  established 
connections  between  our  acts  and  their  results.  ^  As  cer- 
tainly as  there  are  conditions  which  must  be  fulfilled  be- 
fore life  can  exist,  so  certainly  are  there  conditions  which 
must  be  fulfilled  before  complete  life  can  be  enjoyed  by 
the  respective  members  of  a  society ;  and  those  which  we 
call  the  requirements  of  justice,  simply  answer  to  the  most 
important  of  such  conditions. 

Hence,  if  life  is  our  legitimate  aim — ^if  absolute  morality 
means,  as  it  does,  conformity  to  the  laws  of  complete  life ; 
then  absolute  morality  warrants  the  restraint  of  those  who 
force  their  fellow-citizens  into  non-conformity.  Our  justifi- 
cation is,  that  life  is  impossible  save  under  certain  condi- 
tions ;  that  it  cannot  be  perfect  unless  these  conditions  are 


WHAT  MAY  BE  DEMANDED  OF  THE   CEIMINAL.       225 

maintained  unbroken;  and  that  if  it  is  right  for  us  to 
live,  it  is  right  for  us  to  remove  any  one  who  either 
breaks  these  conditions  in  our  persons  or  constrains  us  to 
break  them. 

Such  being  the  basis  of  our  right  to  coerce  the  crimi- 
nal, there  next  come  the  questions : — What  is  the  legiti- 
mate extent  of  the  coercion  ?  Can  we  from  this  source 
derive  authority  for  certain  demands  on  him  ?  and  are 
there  any  similarly-derived  limits  to  such  demands  ?  To 
both  these  questions  there  are  affirmative  answers. 
C  First,  we  find  authority  for  demanding  restitution  or 
compensation.  Conformity  to  the  laws  of  life  being  the 
substance  of  absolute  morality ;  and  the  social  regulations 
which  absolute  morality  dictates,  being  those  which  make 
this  conformity  possible ;  it  is  a  manifest  corollary  that 
whoever  breaks  these  regulations,  may  be  justly  required 
to  undo,  as  far  as  possible,  the  wrong  he  has  done.  The 
object  being  to  maintain  the  conditions  essential  to  com- 
plete life,  it  follows  that,  when  one  of  these  conditions  has 
been  transgressed,  the  first  thing  to  be  required  of  the 
transgressor  is,  that  he  shall  put  matters  as  nearly  as  may 
be  in  the  state  they  previously  were.  The  property  stolen 
shall  be  restored,  or  an  equivalent  for  it  given.  Any 
one  injured  by  an  assault,  shall  have  his  surgeon's  bill 
paid,  compensation  for  lost  time,  and  also  for  the  sufier- 
ing  he  has  borne.  And  similarly  in  all  cases  of  infringed 
rights. 

f*  Second,  we  are  warranted  by  this  highest  authority  in 
restricting  the  actions  of  the  ofiender  as  much  as  is  need- 
ful to  prevent  further  aggressions.  Any  citizen  who  will 
not  allow  others  to  fulfil  the  conditions  to  complete  life — 
who  takes  away  the  produce  of  his  neighbour's  labour,  or 
deducts  from  that  bodUy  health  and  comfort  which  his 
neighbour  has  earned  by  good  conduct,  must  be  forced  to 
desist.  ^  And  society  is  warranted  in  using  such  force  as 
10* 


226  PRISON-ETHICS. 

may  be  found  requisite.  Equity  justifies  the  fellow-citi- 
zens of  such  a  man  in  limiting  the  free  exercise  of  his  fac- 
ulties to  the  extent  necessary  for  preserving  the  free  exer- 
cise of  their  own  faculties. 

But  now  mark  that  absolute  morality  countenances  no 
restraint  beyond  this — no  gratuitous  inflictions  of  pain,  no 
revengeful  penalties.  Complete  life  being  tlie  end  of  mo- 
rality ;  and  the  conditions  it  insists  on  being  such  as  make 
possible  this  complete  life  to  all  members  of  a  community; 
we  cannot  rightly  abrogate  these  conditions,  even  in  the 
person  of  a  criminal,  further  than  is  needful  to  prevent 
greater  abrogations  of  them.  Freedom  to  fulfil  the  laws 
of  life  being  the  thing  insisted  on,  to  the  end  that  the  sum 
of  life  may  be  the  greatest  possible ;  it  follows  that  the  life 
of  the  offender  must  be  taken  into  account  as  an  item  in  this 
sum;  and  that  we  must  permit  him  to  live  as  completely  as 
consists  with  social  safety.  It  is  commonly  said  that  the 
criminal  loses  all  his  rights.  This  may  be  so  according  to 
law,  but  it  is  not  so  according  to  justice.  Such  portion  of 
them  only  is  justly  taken  away,  as  cannot  be  left  to  him 
without  danger  to  the  community.  Those  exercises  of 
faculty,  and  consequent  benefits,  which  are  possible  under 
the  necessary  restraint,  cannot  be  equitably  denied.  If 
any  do  not  think  it  proper  that  we  should  be  thus  regard- 
ful of  an  offender's  claims,  let  them  consider  for  a  moment 
the  lesson  which  Nature  reads  us. 

We  do  not  find  that  those  divinely-ordained  laws  of 
life  by  which  bodily  health  is  maintained,  are  miraculously 
suspended  in  the  person  of  the  prisoner.  In  him,  as  in 
others,  good  digestion  waits  on  appetite.  If  he  is  wound- 
ed, the  healing  process  goes  on  with  the  usual  rapidity. 
When  he  is  ill,  as  much  effect  is  expected  from  the  vis 
medicatrix  naturm  by  the  medical  officer,  as  in  one  who 
has  not  transgressed.  His  perceptions  yield  him  guidance 
as  they  did  before  he  was  imprisoned ;  and  he  is  capable 


THE  EIGHT  TO   COERCION   LIMITED.  227 

of  much  the  same  pleasurable  emotions.  When  we  thus 
see  that  the  beneficent  arrangements  of  things,  are  no  less 
uniformly  sustained  in  his  person  than  in  that  of  another ; 
are  we  not  bound  to  respect  in  his  person  such  of  these 
beneficent  arrangements  as  we  have  power  to  thwart  ?  are 
we  not  bound  to  interfere  with  the  laws  of  life  no  ftirther 
than  is  absolutely  needful  ? 

If  any  still  hesitate,  there  is  another  lesson  for  them 
having  the  same  implication.  Whoso  disregards  any  one 
of  those  simpler  laws  of  life  out  of  which,  as  we  have 
shown,  the  moral  laws  originate,  has  to  bear  the  evil 
necessitated  by  the  transgression — just  that,  and  no  more. 
If,  careless  of  your  footing,  you  fall,  the  consequent  bruise, 
and  possibly  some  constitutional  disturbance  entailed  by 
it,  are  all  you  have  to  sufier :  there  is  not  the  further 
gratuitous  penalty  of  a  cold  or  an  attack  of  small-pox.  If 
you  have  eaten  something  which  you  know  to  be  indigesti- 
ble, there  follow  certain  visceral  derangements  and  their 
concomitants ;  but,  for  your  physical  sin,  there  is  no  ven- 
geance in  the  shape  of  a  broken  bone  or  a  spinal  affection. 
The  punishments,  in  these  and  other  cases,  are  neither 
greater  nor  less  than  flow  from  the  natural  working  of 
things.  Well,  should  we  not  with  all  humility  follow  this 
example?  Must  we  not  infer  that,  similarly,  a  citizen 
who  has  transgressed  the  conditions  to  social  welfare, 
ought  to  bear  the  needful  penalties  and  restraints,  but 
nothing  beyond  these.  Is  it  not  clear  that  neither  by 
absolute  morality  nor  by  Nature's  precedents,  are  we 
warranted  in  visiting  on  him  any  pains  besides  those  in- 
volved in  remedying,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  evil  committed, 
and  preventing  other  such  evils  ?  To  us  it  seems  mani- 
fest that  if  society  exceeds  this,  it  trespasses  against  the 
criminal. 

Those  who  think,  as  many  will  probably  do,  that  we 
are  tending  towards  a  mischievous  leniency,  will  find  that 


228  PRISON-ETHICS. 

the  next  step  in  our  argument  disposes  of  any  such 
objection ;  for  while  equity  forbids  us  to  punish  the  crimi- 
nal otherwise  than  by  making  him  suffer  the  natural  con- 
sequences, these,  when  rigorously  enforced,  are  quite 
severe  enough. 

Society  having  proved  in  the  high  court  of  absolute 
morality,  that  the  offender  must  make  restitution  or  com- 
pensation, and  submit  to  the  restraints  requisite  for  public 
safety ;  and  the  offender  having  obtained  from  the  same 
court  the  decision,  that  these  restraints  shall  be  no  greater 
than  the  specified  end  requires ;  society  thereupon  makes 
the  further  demand  that,  while  living  in  durance,  the 
offender  shall  maintain  himself;  and  this  demand  absolute 
morality  at  once  endorses.  The  community  having  taken 
measures  of  self-preservation ;  and  having  inflicted  on  the 
aggressor  no  punishments  or  disabilities  beyond  those  in- 
volved in  these  necessary  measures ;  is  no  further  con- 
cerned in  the  matter.  With  the  support  of  the  prisoner 
it  has  no  more  to  do  than  before  he  committed  the  crime. 
It  is  the  business  of  society  simply  to  defend  itself  against 
him ;  and  it  is  his  business  to  live  as  well  as  he  can  under 
the  restrictions  society  is  obliged  to  impose  on  him.  All 
he  may  rightly  ask  is,  to  have  the  opportunity  of  labour- 
ing, and  exchanging  the  produce  of  his  labour  for  neces- 
saries ;  and  this  claim  is  a  corollary  from  that  already 
admitted,  that  his  actions  shall  not  be  restricted  more 
than  is  needful  for  the  public  safety.  With  these  oppor- 
tunities, however,  he  must  make  the  best  of  his  position. 
He  must  be  content  to  gain  as  good  a  livelihood  as  the 
circumstances  permit ;  and  if  he  cannot  employ  his  pow- 
ers to  the  best  advantage,  if  he  has  to  work  hard  and  fare 
scantily,  these  evils  must  be  counted  among  the  penalties 
of  his  transgression — ^the  natural  reactions  of  his  wrong 
action. 

On  this  self-maintenance  equity  sternly  insists.     The 


THE   CONVICT   SHOULD   EAEN   HIS   SUPPORT. 

reasons  which  justify  his  imprisonment,  equally  justify  the 
refusal  to  let  him  have  any  other  sustenance  than  he  earns. 
He  is  confined  that  he  may  not  further  interfere  with  the 
complete  living  of  his  fellow-citizens — that  he  may  not 
again  intercept  any  of  those  benefits  which  the  order  of 
Nature  has  conferred  on  them,  or  any  of  those  procured 
by  their  exertions  and  careful  conduct.  And  he  is  required 
to  support  himself  for  exactly  the  same  reasons — ^that  he 
may  not  interfere  with  others'  complete  living — that  he 
may  not  intercept  the  benefits  they  earn.  For,  if  other- 
wise, whence  must  come  his  food  and  clothing  ?  Directly 
from  the  public  stores,  and  indirectly  from  the  pockets  of 
all  tax-payers.  And  what  is  the  property  thus  abstracted 
from  tax-payers  ?  It  is  the  equivalent  of  so  much  benefit 
earned  by  labour.  It  is  so  much  means  to  complete  liv- 
ing. And  when  this  property  is  taken  away — when  the 
toil  has  been  gone^  through,  and  the  produce  it  should 
have  brought  is  intercepted  by  the  tax-gatherer  on  behalf 
of  the  convict — ^the  conditions  to  complete  life  are  broken : 
the  convict  commits  by  deputy  a  further  aggression  on 
his  fellow-citizens. 

It  matters  not  that  such  abstraction  is  made  according 
to  law.  We  are  here  considering  the  dictum  of  that 
authority  which  is  above  law ;  and  which  law  ought  to 
enforce.  -  And  this  dictum  we  find  to  be,  that  each  indi- 
vidual shall  take  the  evils  and  benefits  of  his  own  conduct 
— that  the  offender  must  suffer,  as  far  as  is  possible,  all 
pains  entailed  by  his  offence ;  and  must  not  be  allowed  to 
visit  part  of  them  on  the  innocent.  Unless  the  criminal 
maintains  himself,  he  indirectly  commits  an  additional 
crime.  Instead  of  restitution,  he  makes  a  new  aggression. 
Instead  of  repairing  the  breach  he  has  made  in  the  con- 
ditions to  complete  social  life,  he  widens  this  breach.  He 
inflicts  on  others  that  very  injury  which  the  restraint  im- 
posed on  him  was  to  prevent.     As  certainly,  therefore,  as 


230  PRISON-ETHICS. 

such  restraint  is  warranted  by  absolute  morality ;  so  cer- 
tainly does  absolute  morality  warrant  us  in  refusing  Mm 
gratuitous  support. 

/:  These,  then,  are  the  requirements  of  an  equitable  penal 
system: — That  the  aggressor  shall  make  restitution  or 
compensation ;  that  he  shall  be  placed  under  the  restraints 
requisite  for  social  security ;  that  neither  any  restraints 
beyond  these,  nor  any  gratuitous  penalties,  shall  be  in- 
flicted on  him ;  and  that  while  living  in  confinement,  or 
under  surveillance,  he  shall  maintain  himself.  /  We  are 
not  prepared  to  say  that  such  dictates  may  at  once  be 
fully  obeyed.  Already  we  have  admitted  that  the  deduc- 
tions of  absolute  expediency  must,  in  our  transition  state, 
be  qualified  by  the  inductions  of  relative  expediency. 
We  have  pointed  out  that  in  rude  times,  the  severest 
criminal  codes  were  justified  by  morality ;  if,  without 
them,  crime  could  not  be  repressed  and  social  safety  in- 
sured. Whence,  by  implication,  it  follows  that  our  pres- 
ent methods  of  treating  criminals  are  warranted,  if  they 
come  as  near  to  those  of  pure  equity  as  circumstances 
permit.  That  any  system  now  feasible  must  fall  short  of 
the  ideal  sketched  out,  is  very  possible.  *  It  may  be  that 
the  enforcement  of  restitution  or  compensation,  is  in  many 
cases  impracticable.  It  may  be  that  on  some  convicts, 
penalties  more  severe  than  abstract  justice  demands  must 
be  inflicted.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  that  entire  self- 
maintenance  would  entail  on  the  wholly-unskilled  criminal, 
a  punishment  too  grievous  to  be  borne.  But  any  such 
immediate  shortcomings  do  not  afiect  our  argument.  All 
we  insist  on  is,  that  the  commands  of  absolute  morality 
shall  be  obeyed  as  far  as  possible — that  we  shall  fulfil 
them  up  to  those  limits  beyond  which  experiment  proves 
that  more  evil  than  good  results — that,  ever  keeping  in 
view  the  ideal,  each  change  we  make  shall  be  towards  its 
realization. 


EFFECTS  OF   HUMANE  TREATMENT.  231 

But  now  we  are  prepared  to  say,  that  this  ideal  may 
be  in  great  part  realized  at  the  present  time.  Experience 
in  various  countries,  under  various  circumstances,  has 
shown  that  immense  benefits  result  from  substituting  for 
the  old  penal  systems,  systems  that  approximate  to 
that  above  indicated.  Germany,  France,  Spain,  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  and  Australia,  send  statements  to  the 
elFect  that  the  most  successful  criminal  discipline,  is  a 
discipline  of  decreased  restraints  and  increased  self- 
dependence.  And  the  evidence  proves  the  success  to 
be  greatest,  where  the  nearest  approach  is  made  to  the 
arrangements  prescribed  by  abstract  justice.  We  shall 
find  the  facts  striking :  some  of  them  even  astonish- 
ing. 

When  M.  Obermair  was  appointed  Governor  of  the 
Munich  State-Prison — 

"  He  found  from  600  to  700  prisoners  in  the  jail,  in  the  worst 
state  of  insubordination,  and  whose  excesses,  he  was  told,  defied 
the  harshest  and  most  stringent  discipline ;  the  prisoners  were  all 
chained  together,  and  attached  to  each  chain  was  an  iron  weight, 
which  the  strongest  found  diflficulty  in  dragging  along.  The  guard 
consisted  of  about  100  soldiers,  who  did  duty  not  only  at  the  gates 
and  around  the  walls,  but  also  in  the  passages,  and  even  in  the 
workshops  and  dormitories;  and,  strangest  of  all  protections 
against  the  possibility  of  an  outbreak  or  individual  invasion, 
twenty  to  thirty  lai-ge  savage  dogs,  of  the  bloodhound  breed,  were 
let  loose  at  night  in  the  passages  and  courts  to  keep  their  watch 
and  ward.  According  to  his  account  the  place  was  a  perfect  Pan- 
demonium, comprising,  within  the  limits  of  a  few  acres,  the  worst 
passions,  the  most  slavish  vices,  and  the  most  heartless  tyranny." 

M.  Obermair  gradually  relaxed  this  harsh  system.  He 
greatly  lightened  the  chains ;  and  would,  if  allowed,  have 
thrown  them  aside.  The  dogs,  and  nearly  all  the  guards, 
were  dispensed  with ;  and  the  prisoners  were  treated  with 
such  consideration  as  to  gain  their  confidence.     Mr.  Baillie- 


232  PRISON-ETHICS. 

Cochrane,  who  visited  the  place  in  1862,  says  the  prison- 
gates  were 

"  Wide  open,  without  any  sentinel  at  the  door,  and  a  guard  of 
only  twenty  men  idling  away  their  time  in  a  guard-room  off  the 

entrance-hall None  of  the  doors  were  provided  with  holts 

and  bars ;  the  only  security  was  an  ordinary  lock,  and  as  in  most 
of  the  rooms  the  key  was  not  turned,  there  was  no  obstacle  to  the 

men  walking  into  the  passage Over  each  workshop  some 

of  the  prisoners  with  the  best  characters  were  appointed  over- 
seers, and  M.  Obermair  assured  me  that  if  a  prisoner  transgressed 
a  regulation,  his  companions  generally  told  him,  '  est  ist  verboten,' 
(it  is  forbidden),  and  it  rarely  happened  that  he  did  not  yield  to 

the  opinion  of  his  feUow-prisoners "Within  the  prison  waUs 

every  description  of  work  is  carried  on ;  the  prisoners,  divided 
into  different  gangs  and  supplied  with  instruments  and  tools,  make 
their  own  clothes,  repair  their  own  prison  walls,  and  forge  their 
own  chains,  producing  various  specimens  of  manufacture  which 
are  turned  to  most  excellent  account — the  result  being,  that  each 
prisoner,  by  occupation  and  industry,  maintains  himself;  the  sur- 
plus of  his  earnings  being  given  him  on  his  emancipation,  avoids 
his  being  parted  with  in  a  state  of  destitution." 

And  further,  the  prisoners  "  associate  in  their  leisure 
hours,  without  any  check  on  their  intercourse,  but  at 
the  same  time  under  an  efficient  system  of  observation 
and  control" — an  arrangement  by  which,  after  many 
years'  experience,  M.  Obermair  asserts  that  morality  is  in- 
creased. 

And  now  what  has  been  the  result  ?  During  his  six- 
years'  government  of  the  Kaisers-lauten  (the  first  prison 
under  his  care),  M.  Obermair  discharged  132  criminals,  of 
which  number  123  have  since  conducted  themselves  well, 
and  1  have  been  recommitted.  From  the  Munich  prison, 
between  1843  and  1845,  298  prisoners  were  discharged. 
"  Of  these,  246  have  been  restored,  improved,  to  society. 
Those  whose  characters  are  doubtful,  but  have  not  been 


MILD  DISCIPLINE   SUCCESSFUL. 

remanded  for  any  criminal  act,  26 ;  again  under  examina- 
tion, 4  ;  punished  by  the  police,  6 ;  remanded,  8  ;  died,  8." 
This  statement,  says  M.  Obermair,  "  is  based  on  irrefuta- 
ble evidence."  And  to  the  reality  of  his  success,  we  have 
the  testimony  not  only  of  Mr.  Baillie-Cochrane,  but  of  the 
Rev.  C.  H.  Townsend,  Mr.  George  Combe,  Mr.  Matthew 
Hill,  and  Sir  John  Milbanke,  our  Envoy  at  the  Court  of 
Bavaria. 

Take,  again,  the  case  of  Mettray.  Every  one  has  heard 
something  about  Mettray,  and  its  success  as  a  reformatory 
of  juvenile  criminals.  Observe  how  nearly  the  successful 
system  there  pursued,  conforms  to  the  abstract  principles 
above  enunciated. 

This  "  Colonic  Agricole  "  is  "  without  wall  or  enclosure 
of  any  sort,  for  the  purposes  at  least  of  confinement ; "  and 
except  when  for  some  fault  a  child  is  temporarily  put  in  a 
cell,  there  is  no  physical  restraint.  The  life  is  industrial : 
the  boys  being  brought  up  to  trades  or  agriculture  as  they 
prefer ;  and  all  the  domestic  services  being  discharged  by 
them.  "  They  all  do  their  work  by  the  piece ;  "  are  re- 
warded according  to  the  judgment  of  the  chef  d"^ atelier  ; 
and  a  portion  being  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  child, 
the  rest  is  deposited  in  the  savings-bank  at  Tours.  "  A 
boy  in  receipt  of  any  money  has  to  make  payment  for 
any  part  of  his  dress  which  requires  to  be  renewed  before 
the  stated  time  arrives  at  which  fresh  clothing  is  given 

out ; on  the  other  hand,  if  his  clothes  are  found  in 

good  condition  at  such  time,  he  receives  the  benefit  of  it 
by  having  the  money  which  would  have  been  laid  out  in 
clothes  placed  to  his  account.  Two  hours  per  day  are 
allowed  for  play.  Part-singing  is  taught ;  and  if  a  boy 
shows  any  turn  for  drawing  he  receives  a  little  instruction 
in  it Some  of  the  boys  also  are  formed  into  a  fire- 
brigade,  and  have  rendered  at  times  substantial  assistance 
in  the  neighbourhood."    In  which  few  leading  facts  do  we 


234  PRISON-ETHICS. 

not  clearly  see  that  the  essential  peculiarities  are — no  more 
restraint  than  is  absolutely  necessary ;  self-support  as  far 
as  possible  ;  extra  benefits  earned  by  extra  labour;  and  as 
much  gratifying  exercise  of  faculties  as  the  circumstances 
permit. 

The  "  intermediate  system "  which  has  of  late  been 
carried  out  with  much  success  in  Ireland,  exemplifies,  in  a 
degree,  the  practicability  of  the  same  general  principles. 
Under  this  system,  prisoners  working  as  artisans  are 
allowed  "  such  a  modified  degree  of  liberty  as  shall  in 
various  ways  prove  theii*  power  of  self-denial  and  self- 
dependence,  in  a  manner  wholly  incompatible  with  the 
rigid  restraints  of  an  ordinary  prison."  An  offender  who 
has  passed  through  this  stage  of  probation,  is  tested  by 
employment  "  on  messenger's  duties  daily  throughout  the 
city,  and  also  in  special  works  required  by  the  department 
outside  the  prison-walls.  The  performance  of  the  duties 
of  messengers  entails  their  being  out  until  seven  or  eight 
in  the  evening,  unaccompanied  by  any  officer;  and  although 
a  small  portion  of  their  earnings  is  allowed  them  weekly, 
and  they  would  have  the  power  of  compromising  them- 
selves if  so  disposed,  not  one  instance  has  as  yet  taken 
place  of  the  slightest  irregularity,  or  even  the  want  of 
punctuality,  although  careful  cheeks  have  been  contrived 
to  detect  either,  should  it  occur."  A  proportion  of  their 
prison-earnings  is  set  aside  for  them  in  a  savings-bank ; 
and  to  this  they  are  encouraged  to  add  during  their 
period  of  partial  freedom,  with  a  view  to  subsequent  emi- 
gration. The  results  are: — "In  the  penitentiary  the 
greatest  possible  order  and  regularity,  and  an  amount  of 
willing  industry  performed  that  cannot  be  obtained  in  the 
prisons."  Employers  to  whom  prisoners  are  eventually 
transferred,  "  have  on  many  occasions  returned  for  others 
in  consequence  of  the  good  conduct  of  those  at  first  en- 
gaged."    And  according  to  Captain  Crofton's  pamphlet 


WOEKma  OF  THE  MAEK   SYSTEM.  235 

of  1857,  out  of  112  conditionally  discharged  during  the 
previous  year,  85  were  going  on  satisfactorily,  "  9  have 
been  discharged  too  recently  to  be  spoken  of,  and  5  have 
had  their  licenses  revoked.  As  to  the  remaining  13,  it 
has  been  found  impossible  to  obtain  accurate  informa- 
tion, but  it  is  supposed  that  5  have  left  the  country,  and  3 
enlisted." 

The  "  mark  system "  of  Captain  Maconochie,  is  one 
which  more  fully  carries  out  the  principle  of  self-main- 
tenance, under  restraints  no  greater  than  are  needful  for 
safety.  The  plan  is  to  join  with  time-sentences  certain 
labour-sentences — specific  tasks  to  be  worked  out  by  the 
convicts.  "  'No  rations,  or  other  supplies  of  any  kind, 
whether  of  food,  bedding,  clothing,  or  even  education  or 
indulgences,  to  be  given  gratuitoiisly^  but  all  to  be  made 
exchangeable,  at  fixed  rates,  at  the  prisoners'  own  option, 
for  marks  previously  earned ;  it  being  understood,  at  the 
same  time,  that  only  those  shall  count  towards  liberation 
which  remain  over  and  above  all  so  exchanged ;  the  pris- 
oners being  thus  caused  to  depend  for  every  necessary 
on  their  own  good  conduct ;  and  their  prison-ofiences  to 
be  in  like  manner  restrained  by  corresponding  fines  im- 
posed according  to  the  measures  of  each."  The  use  of 
marks,  which  thus  play  the  part  of  money,  was  first  intro- 
duced by  Captain  Maconochie  in  Norfolk  Island.  De- 
scribing the  working  of  his  method,  he  says — 

"  First,  it  gave  me  wages  and  then  fines.  One  gave  me  willing 
and  progressively-skilled  labourers,  and  the  other  saved  me  from 
the  necessity  of  imposing  brutal  and  demoralizing  punishments.  .  .  . 
My  form  of  money  next  gave  me  school  fees.  I  was  most  anxious 
to  encourage  education  among  my  men,  but  as  I  refused  them 
rations  gratuitously,  so  I  would  not  give  them  schooling  either, 

but  compelled  them  to  yield  marks  to  acquire  it I  never 

saw  adult  schools  make  such  rapid  progress My  form  of 

money  next  gave  me  bailbonds  in  cases  of  minor  or  even  great 


236  PEISON-ETHICS. 

oflfences ;  a  period  of  close  imprisonmeiit  being  wholly  or  in  part 
remitted  in  consideration  of  a  sufficient  number  of  other  prisoners 
of  good  character  becoming  bound,  under  a  penalty,  for  the  im- 
proved conduct  of  the  culprit." 

Even  in  the  establishment  of  a  sick-club  and  a  burial- 
club,  Captain  Maconochie  applied  "  the  inflexible  principle 
of  giving  nothing  for  nothing."  That  is  to  say,  here,  as 
throughout,  he  made  the  discipline  of  the  prisoners  as 
much  like  the  discipline  of  ordinary  life  as  possible ;  let 
them  experience  just  such  good  or  evil  as  naturally  flowed 
from  their  conduct — a  principle  which  he  rightly  avows  as 
the  only  true  one.  What  were  the  effects  ?  The  extreme 
debasement  of  Norfolk-Island  convicts  was  notorious ;  and 
on  a  preceding  page  we  have  described  some  of  the 
horrible  sufferings  inflicted  on  them.  Yet,  starting  with 
these  most  demoralized  of  criminals,  Captain  Maconochie 
obtained  highly-favourable  results.  "  In  four  years,"  he 
says,  "  I  discharged  920  doubly-convicted  men  to  Sydney, 
of  whom  only  20,  or  2  per  cent.,  had  been  reconvicted  up 
to  January,  1845 ;"  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  ordinary 
proportion  of  reconvicted  Van  Diemen's  Land  men,  other- 
wise trained,  was  9  per  cent.  "  Captain  Maconochie," 
writes  Mr.  Harris  in  his  Convicts  and  Settlers,  "  did  more 
for  the  reformation  of  these  unhappy  wretches,  and  ame- 
lioration of  their  physical  circumstances,  than  the  most 
sanguine  practical  mind  could  beforehand  have  ventured 
to  hope."  Another  witness  says — "  a  reformation  far 
greater  than  has  been  hitherto  effected  in  any  body  of 
men  by  any  system,  either  before  or  after  yours,  has  taken 
place  in  them."  "  As  pastor  of  the  island,  and  for  two 
years  a  magistrate,  I  can  prove  that  at  no  period  was  there 
so  little  crime,"  writes  the  Rev.  B.  Naylor.  And  Thomas 
H.  Dixon,  Chief  Superintendent  of  Convicts  in  Western 
Australia,  who  partially  introduced  the  system  there  in 
1856,  asserts  that  not  only  was  the  amount  of  work  done 


EEMAEKABLE  EEFOEMATTON   OF   CONVICTS.  237 

under  it  extraordinary,  but  that  "  even  although  the  char- 
acters of  some  of  the  party  were  by  no  means  good  pre- 
viously (many  of  them  being  men  whose  licenses  had 
been  revoked  in  England),  yet  the  transformation  which 
in  this  and  all  other  respects  they  underwent,  was  very 
remarkable  indeed."  If  such  were  the  results,  when  the 
method  was  imperfectly  carried  out  (for  the  Government 
all  along  refused  to  give  any  fixed  value  to  the  marks  as 
a  means  to  liberation) ;  what  might  be  expected  if  its 
motives  and  restraints  were  allowed  their  full  influence  ? 

Perhaps,  however,  of  all  evidence,  the  most  conclusive 
is  that  afforded  by  the  prison  of  Valencia.  When,  in 
1835,  Colonel  Montesinos  was  appointed  governor,  "the 
average  of  recommittals  was  from  30  to  35  per  cent,  per 
annum — nearly  the  same  that  is  found  in  England  and  other 
countries  in  Europe ;  but  such  has  been  the  success  of  his 
method,  that  for  the  last  three  years  there  has  not  been  even 
one  recommittal  to  it,  and  for  the  ten  previous  years  they 
did  not,  on  an  average,  exceed  1  per  cent."  And  how  has 
this  marvellous  change  been  brought  about  ?  By  dimin- 
ished restraint  and  industrial  discipline.  The  following 
extracts,  taken  irregularly  from  Mr.  Hoskins's  Spain  as  it 
is,  will  prove  this : 

"When  first  the  culprit  enters  the  establishment  he  wears 
chains,  but  on  his  application  to  the  commander  they  are  taken  off, 
unless  he  has  not  conducted  himself  well." 

"  There  are  a  thousand  prisoners,  and  in  the  whole  establish- 
ment I  did  not  see  above  three  or  four  guardians  to  keep  them  in 
order.  They  say  there  are  only  a  dozen  old  soldiers,  and  not  a  bar 
or  bolt  that  might  not  be  easily  broken — apparently  not  more  fas- 
tenings than  in  any  private  house." 

"  When  a  convict  enters,  he  is  asked  what  trade  or  employment 

he  will  work  at  or  learn,  and  above  forty  are  open  to  him 

There  are  weavers  and  spinners  of  every  description ; 

blacksmiths,  shoemakers,  basketmakers,  ropemakers,  joiners,  cab- 


238  PEIS0N-ETHIC8. 

inetmakers,  making  handsome  mahogany  drawers ;  and  they  had 
also  a  printing  machine  hard  at  work." 

"  The  labour  of  every  description  for  the  repair,  rebuilding, 
and  cleaning  the  establishment,  is  supplied  by  the  convicts.  They 
were  all  most  respectful  in  demeanour,  and  certainly  I  never  saw 
such  a  good-looking  set  of  prisoners,  useful  occupations  (and  other 
considerate  treatment)  having  apparently  improved  their  counte- 
nances  And  besides  a  '  garden  for  exercise  planted  with 

orange  trees,'  there  was  also  a  poultry  yard  for  their  amusement, 
with  pheasants  and  various  other  kinds  of  birds ;  washing-houses, 
where  they  wash  their  clothes ;  and  a  shop,  where  they  can  pur- 
chase, if  they  wish,  tobacco  and  other  httle  comforts  out  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  profits  of  their  labour,  which  is  given  to  them. 
Another  fourth  they  are  entitled  to  when  they  leave ;  the  other 
half  goes  to  the  establishment,  arid  often  this  is  sufficient  for  all 
expenses,  without  any  assistance  from  the  Oovemment. 

Thus  the  highest  success,  regarded  by  Mr.  Hoskins  as 
"  really  a  miracle,"  is  achieved  by  a  system  most  nearly- 
conforming  to  those  dictates  of  absolute  morality  on  which 
we  have  insisted.  The  convicts  are  almost,  if  not  quite, 
self-supporting.  They  are  subject  neither  to  gratuitous 
penalties  nor  unnecessary  restrictions.  While  made  to 
earn  their  living,  they  are  allowed  to  purchase  such  en- 
joyments as  consist  with  their  confinement :  the  avowed 
principle  being,  in  the  words  of  Colonel  Montesinos,  to 
"  give  as  much  latitude  to  their  free  agency  as  can  be 
made  conformable  to  discipline  at  all."  Thus  they  are 
(as  we  found  that  equity  required  they  should  be)  allowed 
to  live  as  satisfactorily  as  they  can,  under  such  restraints 
only  as  are  needful  for  the  safety  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

To  us  it  appears  extremely  significant  that  there  should 
be  so  close  a  correspondence  between  d  priori  conclusions, 
and  the  results  of  experiments  tried  without  reference  to 
such  conclusions.  On  the  one  hand,  neither  in  the  doc- 
trines of  pure  equity  with  which  we  set  out,  nor  in  the 
corollaries   drawn  from  them,  is  there  any  mention   of 


THE  MOST  EQUITABLE  SYSTEM  THE   BEST. 

criminal-reformation :  our  concern  has  been  solely  with 
the  rights  of  citizens  and  convicts  in  their  mutual  rela- 
tions. On  the  other  hand,  those  who  have  carried  out 
the  improved  penal  systems  above  described,  have  had 
almost  solely  in  view  the  improvement  of  the  offender : 
the  just  claims  of  society,  and  of  those  who  sin  against  it, 
having  been  left  out  of  the  question.  Yet  the  methods 
which  have  succeeded  so  marvellously  in  decreasing 
criminality,  are  the  methods  which  most  nearly  fulfil  the 
requirements  of  abstract  justice.  May  we  not,  in  this, 
see  clear  proof  of  harmony  with  the  ordained  principles  of 
things  ? 

^  That  the  most  equitable  system  is  the  one  best  calcu- 
lated to  reform  the  offender,  may  indeed  be  deductively 
shown.  The  internal  experience  of  every  one  must  prove 
to  him,  that  excessive  punishment  begets,  not  penitence, 
but  indignation  and  hatred.  So  long  as  an  aggressor 
suffers  nothing  beyond  the  evils  that  have  naturally  re- 
sulted from  his  misconduct — so  long  as  he  perceives  that 
his  fellow-men  have  done  no  more  than  was  needful  for 
self-defence — he  has  no  excuse  for  anger ;  and  is  led  to 
contemplate  his  crime  and  his  punishment  as  cause  and 
effect.  But  if  gratuitous  sufferings  are  inflicted  on  him,  a 
sense  of  injustice  is  produced.  He  regards  himself  as  an 
injured  man.  /He  cherishes  animosity  against  all  who  have 
brought  this  harsh  treatment  on  him.  Glad  of  any  plea 
for  forgetting  the  injury  he  has  done  to  others,  he  dwells 
instead  on  the  injury  others  have  done  to  him.  Thus 
nurtuiing  a  desired  for  revenge  rather  than  atonement,  he 
reenters  society  not  better  but  worse ;  and  if  he  does  not 
commit  further  crimes,  as  he  often  does,  he  is  restrained 
by  the  lowest  of  motives — fear. 

Again,  this  industrial  discipline,  to  which  criminals 
subject  themselves  under  a  purely  equitable  system,  is  the 
discipline  they  especially  need.      Speaking   generally,  we 


240  PEISON-ETHICS. 

are  all  compelled  to  work  by  the  necessities  of  our  social 
existence.  For  most  of  us  this  compulsion  suffices ;  but 
there  are  some  whose  aversion  to  labour  cannot  be  thus 
overcome.  Not  labouring,  and  needing  sustenance,  they 
are  compelled  to  obtain  it  in  illegitimate  ways ;  and  so 
bring  on  themselves  the  legal  penalties.  IThe  criminal 
class  being  thus  in  great  part  recruited  from  the  idle  class; 
and  the  idleness  being  the  source  of  the  criminality ;  it 
follows  that  a  successful  discipline  must  be  one  which 
shall  cure  the  idleness.  The  natural  compulsions  to  labour 
having  been  eluded,  the  thing  required  is  that  the  offender 
shall  be  so  placed  that  he  cannot  elude  them.  And  this 
is  just  what  is  done  under  the  system  we  advocate.  Its 
action  is  such  that  men  whose  natures  are  ill-adapted  to 
the  conditions  of  social  life,  bring  themselves  into  a  posi- 
tion in  which  a  better  adaptation  is  forced  on  them  by  the 
alternative  of  starvation. 

Lastly,  let  us  not  forget  that  this  discipline  which 
absolute  morality  dictates,  is  salutary,  not  only  because  it 
is  industrial,  but  because  it  is  voluntarily  industrial.  As 
we  have  shown,  equity  requires  that  the  confined  crimi- 
nal shall  be  left  to  maintain  himself — that  is,  shall  be  left 
to  work  much  or  little,  and  to  take  the  consequent  pleni- 
tude or  hunger.  When,  therefore,  under  this  sharp  but 
natural  spur,  a  prisoner  begins  to  exert  himself,  he  does 
so  by  his  own  will.  The  process  which  leads  him  into  hab- 
its of  labour,  is  a  process  by  which  his  self-control  is 
strengthened ;  and  this  is  what  is  wanted  to  make  him 
a  better  citizen.  It  is  to  no  purpose  that  you  make  him 
work  by  external  coercion ;  for  when  he  is  again  free,  and 
the  coercion  absent,  he  will  be  what  he  was  before.  The 
coercion  must  be  an  internal  one,  which  he  shall  carry 
with  him  out  of  prison.  It  avails  little  that  you  force  him 
to  work;  he  must  force  himself  to  work.  And  this,  he 
will  do,  only  when  placed  in  those  conditions  which  equity 
dictates. 


DUEATION   OF  KESTRAINT.  241 

Here,  then,  we  find  a  third  order  of  evidences.  Psy- 
chology supports  our  conclusion.  The  various  experiments 
above  detailed,  carried  out  by  men  who  had  no  political 
or  ethical  theories  to  propagate,  have  established  facts 
which  we  find  to  be  quite  concordant,  not  only  with  the 
deductions  of  absolute  morality,  but  also  with  the  deduc- 
tions of  mental  science.  Such  a  combination  of  different 
kinds  of  proof  cannot,  we  think,  be  resisted. 

And  now  let  us  try  whether,  by  pursuing  somewhat 
further  the  method  thus  far  followed,  we  can  see  our  way 
to  the  development  of  certain  improved  systems  that  are 
coming  into  use. 

Equity  requires  that  the  restraint  of  the  criminal  shall 
be  as  great  as  is  needful  for  the  safety  of  society ;  but  not 
greater.  In  respect  to  the  quality  of  the  restraint,  there  is 
little  difficulty  in  interpreting  this  requirement ;  but  there 
is  considerable  difficulty  in  deciding  on  the  duration  of 
the  restraint.  No  obvious  mode  presents  itself  of  finding 
out  how  long  a  transgressor  must  be  held  in  legal  bond- 
age, to  insure  society  against  further  injury  from  him.  A 
longer  period  than  is  necessary,  implies  an  actual  injustice 
to  the  offender.  A  shorter  period  than  is  necessary,  im- 
plies a  potential  injustice  to  society.  And  yet,  without 
good  guidance,  one  or  other  of  these  extremes  is  almost 
sure  to  be  fallen  into. 

At  present,  the  lengths  of  penal  sentences  are  fixed  in 
a  manner  that  is  wholly  empirical.  For  offences  defined 
in  certain  technical  ways.  Acts  of  Parliament  assign  trans- 
portations and  imprisonments,  having  durations  not  greater 
than  so  much  nor  less  than  so  much:  these  partially- 
determined  periods  being  arbitrarily  fixed  by  legislators, 
under  the  promptings  of  moral  feeling.  Within  the 
assigned  limits  the  judge  exercises  his  discretion ;  and  in 
deciding  on  the  time  over  which  the  restraint  shall  extend, 
11 


242  PEIS0N-ETHIC8. 

he  is  swayed,  partly  by  the  special  quality  of  the  offence, 
partly  by  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  com- 
mitted, partly  by  the  prisoner's  appearance  and  behaviour, 
partly  by  the  character  given  to  him.  And  the  conclu- 
sion he  arrives  at  after  consideration  of  these  data,  depends 
very  much  on  his  individual  nature — his  moral  bias  and 
his  theories  of  human  conduct.  Thus  the  mode  of  fixing 
the  lengths  of  penal  restraints,  is  from  beginning  to  end, 
little  else  than  guessing.  How  ill  this  system  of  guessing 
works,  we  have  abundant  proofs.  "Justices'  justice," 
which  illustrates  it  in  its  simplest  form,  has  become  a  bye- 
word  ;  and  the  decisions  of  higher  criminal  courts  con- 
tinually err  in  the  directions  of  both  undue  severity  and 
undue  lenity.  Daily  do  there  occur  cases  of  extremely- 
trifling  transgression  visited  with  imprisonment  of  consid- 
erable length ;  and  daily  do  there  occur  cases  in  which  the 
punishment  is  so  inadequate,  that  the  offender  time  after 
time  commits  new  crimes,  when  time  after  time  discharged 
from  custody. 

l^ow  the  question  is,  whether  in  place  of  this  purely 
empirical  method  which  answers  so  ill,  equity  can  guide  us 
to  a  method  which  shall  more  con-ectly  adjust  the  period 
of  restraint  to  the  requirement  in  each  case.  We  believe 
it  can.  We  believe  that  by  following  out  its  dictates,  we 
shall  arrive  at  a  method  that  is  in  great  measure  self-act- 
ing ;  and  therefore  less  liable  to  be  vitiated  by  errors  of 
individual  judgment  or  feeling. 

We  have  seen  that  were  the  requirements  of  absolute 
morality  consulted,  every  transgressor  would  be  compelled 
to  make  restitution  or  compensation.  Throughout  a  con- 
siderable range  of  cases,  this  would  itself  involve  a  period 
of  restraint  varying  in  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
offence.  It  is  true  that  when  the  malefactor  possessed 
ample  means,  the  making  restitution  or  compensation 
would  usually  be  to  him  but  a  slight  punishment.     But 


FIXING  THE  DTJBATION  OF  PUNISHMENT.  243 

though  in  these  comparatively  few  cases,  the  regulation 
would  fall  short  of  its  object,  in  so  far  as  its  effect  on  the 
criminal  was  concerned ;  yet  in  the  immense  majority  of 
cases — ^in  all  cases  of  aggressions  committed  by  the  poorer 
members  of  the  community — it  would  act  with  efficiency. 
It  would  involve  periods  of  detention  that  would  be  longer 
or  shorter  according  as  the  injury  done  was  greater  or 
less ;  and  according  as  the  transgressor  was  idle  or  indus- 
trious. /  And  although  between  the  injury  done  by  an 
offender  and  his  moral  turpitude,  there  is  no  constant  and 
exact  proportion ;  yet  the  greatness  of  the  injury  done, 
affords,  on  the  average  of  cases,  a  better  measure  of  the 
discipline  required,  than  do  the  votes  of  Parliamentary 
majorities  and  the  guesses  of  judges. 

But  our  guidance  does  not  end  here.  An  endeavour 
still  further  to  do  that  which  is  strictly  equitable,  will 
carry  us  still  nearer  to  a  correct  adjustment  of  discipline 
to  delinquency.  When,  having  enforced  restitution,  we 
insist  on  some  adequate  guarantee  that  society  shall  not 
be  again  injured,  and  accept  any  guarantee  that  is  suffi- 
cient ;  we  open  the  way  to  a  self-acting  regulator  of  the 
period  of  detention.  Already  our  laws  are  in  many  cases 
satisfied  with  securities  for  future  good  behaviour.  Al- 
ready this  system  manifestly  tends  to  separate  the  more 
vicious  from  the  less  vicious :  seeing  that,  on  the  average, 
the  difficulty  of  finding  securities  is  great  in  proportion  as 
the  character  is  bad.  And  what  we  propose  is,  that  this 
system,  now  confined  to  particular  kinds  of  offences,  shall 
be  made  general.     But  let  us  be  more  specific. 

A  prisoner  on  his  trial  calls  witnesses  to  testify  to  his 
previous  character — that  is,  if  his  character  has  been 
tolerably  good.  The  evidence  thus  given  weighs  more  or 
less  in  his  favour,  according  to  the  respectability  of  the 
witnesses,  their  number,  and  the  nature  of  their  testimony. 
Taking  into   account  these   several  elements,  the  judge 


244  PRISON-ETHICS. 

forms  his  conception  of  the  delinquent's  general  disposi- 
tion ;  and  modifies  the  length  of  punishment  accordingly. 
Now,  may  we  not  fairly  say  that  if  the  current  opinion 
respecting  a  convict's  character  could  be  brought  directly 
to  bear  in  qualifying  the  statutory  sentence,  instead  of 
being  brought  indirectly  to  bear,  as  at  present,  it  would 
be  a  great  improvement  ?  Clearly  the  estimate  made  by 
a  judge  from  such  testimony,  must  be  far  less  accurate 
than  the  estimate  made  by  the  prisoner's  neighbours  and 
employers.  Clearly,  too,  the  opinion  expressed  by  such 
neighbours  and  employers  in  the  witness-box,  is  less  trust- 
worthy than  an  opinion  which  entailed  on  them  serious 
responsibility.  The  desideratum  is,  that  a  prisoner'* s  sen- 
tence shall  he  qualified  by  the  judgment  of  those  who  have 
had  life-long  experience  of  him  ;  and  that  the  sincerity 
of  this  judgment  shall  be  tested  by  their  readiness  to  act 
on  it.     / 

But  how  is  this  to  be  done  ?  A  very  simple  method 
of  doing  it  has  been  suggested.*  When  a  convict  has 
fulfilled  his  task  of  making  restitution  or  compensation, 
let  it  be  possible  for  one  or  other  of  those  who  have  known 
him,  to  take  him  out  of  confinement,  on  giving  adequate 
bail  for  his  good  behaviour.  Always  premising  that  such 
an  arrangement  shall  be  possible  only  under  an  ofiicial 
permit,  to  be  withheld  if  the  prisoner's  conduct  has  been 
unsatisfactory;  and  always  premising  that  the  person 
who  offers  bail  shall  be  of  good  character  and  means ;  let 
it  be  competent  for  such  a  one  to  liberate  a  prisoner  by 
being  bound  on  his  behalf  for  a  specific  sum,  or  by  under- 
taking to  make  good  any  injury  which  he  may  do  to  his 
fellow-citizens  within  a  specified  period.  '  This  will  doubt- 
less be  thought  a  startling  proposal.  We  shall,  however, 
find  good  reasons  to  believe  it  might  be  safely  acted  on— 

*  We  owe  the  suggestion  to  Mr.  Octavius  H.  Smith. 


CONDITIONAL   LIBEEATION   OF  THE   CONVICT.  245 

nay,  we  shall  find  facts  proving  the  success  of  a  plan  that 
is  obviously  less  safe. 

Under  such  an  arrangement,  the  liberator  and  the  con- 
vict would  usually  stand  in  the  relation  of  employer  and 
employed.  Those  to  be  thus  conditionally  released,  would 
be  ready  to  work  for  somewhat  lower  wages  than  were 
usual  in  their  occupation ;  and  those  who  became  bound 
for  them,  besides  having  this  economy  of  wages  as  an  in- 
centive, would  be  in  a  manner  guaranteed  by  it  against 
the  risk  undertaken.  In  working  for  less  money,  and  in 
being  under  the  surveillance  of  his  master,  the  convict 
would  still  be  undergoing  a  mitigated  discipline.  And 
while,  on  the  one  hand,  he  would  be  put  on  his  good 
behaviour  by  the  consciousness  that  his  master  might  at 
any  time  cancel  the  contract  and  surrender  him  back  to 
the  authorities ;  he  would,  on  the  other  hand,  have  a 
remedy  against  his  master's  harshness,  in  the  option  of 
returning  to  prison,  and  there  maintaining  himself  for  the 
remainder  of  his  term. 

Observe  next,  that  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  such  con- 
ditional release,  would  vary  with  the  gravity  of  the  offence 
that  had  been  committed.  Men  guilty  of  heinous  crimes 
would  remain  in  prison ;  for  none  would  dare  to  become 
responsible  for  their  good  behaviour.  Any  one  convicted 
a  second  time,  would  remain  unbailed  for  a  much  longer 
period  than  before ;  seeing  that  having  once  inflicted  loss 
on  some  one  bound  for  him,  he  would  not  again  be  so  soon 
offered  the  opportunity  of  doing  the  like :  only  after  a  long 
period  of  good  behaviour  testified  to  by  prison-officers, 
would  he  be  likely  to  get  another  chance.  Conversely, 
those  whose  transgressions  were  not  serious,  and  who  had 
usually  been  well-conducted,  would  readily  obtain  recog- 
nizances ;  while  to  venial  offenders  this  qualified  liberation 
would  come  as  soon  as  they  had  made  restitution.  More- 
over, when  innocent  persons  had  been  pronounced  guilty, 


246  PEISON-ETHICS. 

as  well  as  in  cases  of  solitary  misdeeds  being  committed 
by  those  of  really  superior  natures,  the  system  we  have 
described  would  supply  a  remedy.  From  the  wrong 
verdicts  of  the  law,  and  its  mistaken  estimates  of  turpi- 
tude, there  would  be  an  appeal ;  and  long-proved  worth 
would  bring  its  reward  in  the  mitigation  of  grievous  in- 
justices. 

A  further  advantage  would  by  implication  result,  in 
the  shape  of  a  long  industrial  discipline  for  those  who 
most  needed  it.  Speaking  generally,  diligent  and  skilful 
workmen,  who  were  on  the  whole  useful  members  of 
society,  would,  if  their  offences  were  not  serious,  soon  ob- 
tain employers  to  give  bail  for  them.  Whereas,  members 
of  the  especially  criminal  class — the  idle  and  the  dissolute 
— would  remain  long  in  confinement ;  since,  until  they 
had  been  brought  by  the  discipline  of  self-maintenance 
under  restraint,  to  something  like  industrial  efficiency, 
employers  would  not  be  tempted  to  become  responsible 
for  them. 

We  should  thus  have  a  self-acting  test,  not  only  of  the 
length  of  restraint  required  for  social  safety,  but  also  of 
that  apprenticeship  to  labour  which  many  convicts  need ; 
while  there  would  be  supplied  a  means  of  rectifying  sun- 
dry failures  and  excesses  of  our  present  system.  The  plan 
would  practically  amount  to  an  extension  of  trial  by  jury. 
At  present,  the  State  calls  in  certain  of  a  prisoner's  fellow- 
citizens  to  decide  whether  he  is  guilty  or  not  guilty :  the 
judge,  under  guidance  of  the  penal  laws,  being  left  to 
decide  what  punishment  he  deseiwes,  if  guilty.  Under 
the  arrangement  we  have  described,  the  judge's  decision 
would  admit  of  modification  by  a  jury  of  the  convict's 
neighbours.  And  this  natural  jury,  while  it  would  be 
best  fitted  by  previous  knowledge  of  the  man,  to  form 
an  opinion,  would  be  rendered  cautious  by  the  sense 
of   grave    responsibility:    inasmuch    as    any   one   of  its 


rEASIBILITY  OF   CONDITIONAL   LIBEEATION.  247 

number,  who  gave  a  conditional  release,  would  do  so  at 
his  o^\Ti  peril. 

And  now  mark,  that  all  the  evidence  forthcoming  to 
prove  the  safety  and  advantages  of  the  "  intermediate  sys- 
tem," proves,  still  more  conclusively,  the  safety  and  ad- 
vantages of  this  system  which  we  would  substitute  for  it. 
What  we  have  described,  is  nothing  more  than  an  inter- 
mediate system  reduced  to  a  natural  instead  of  an  artificial 
form — carried  out  with  natural  checks  instead  of  artificial 
checks.  If,  as  Captain  Crofton  has  experimentally  shown, 
it  is  safe  to  give  a  prisoner  conditional  liberation,  on  the 
strength  of  good  conduct  during  a  certain  period  of  prison- 
discipline  ;  it  is  evidently  safer  to  let  his  conditional  liber- 
ation depend  not  alone  on  good  conduct  while  under  the 
eyes  of  his  jailers,  but  also  on  the  character  he  had  earned 
during  his  previous  life.  If  it  is  safe  to  act  on  the  judg- 
ments of  officials  whose  experience  of  a  convict's  behaviour 
is  comparatively  limited,  and  who  do  not  suffer  penalties 
when  their  judgments  are  mistaken ;  then,  manifestly,  it 
is  safer  (when  such  officials  can  show  no  reason  to  the 
contrary)  to  act  on  the  additional  judgment  of  one  who 
has  not  only  had  better  opportunities  of  knowing  the  con- 
vict, but  who  will  be  a  serious  loser,  if  his  judgment  proves 
erroneous.  Further,  that  surveillance  over  each  condi- 
tionally-liberated prisoner,  which  the  "  intermediate  sys- 
tem "  exercises,  would  be  still  better  exercised,  when,  in- 
stead of  going  to  a  strange  master  in  a  strange  district, 
the  prisoner  went  to  some  master  in  his  own  district ;  and 
under  such  circumstances,  it  would  be  easier  to  get  such 
information  respecting  his  after-career  as  is  found  desira- 
ble. There  is  every  reason  to  think  that  such  a  method 
would  be  workable.  If,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
officers.  Captain  Crofton's  prisoners  obtain  employers 
"  who  have  on  many  occasions  returned  for  others,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  good  conduct  of  those  at  first  engaged ;  '* 


248  PEISON-ETHICS. 

still  better  would  be  the  action  of  the  system  when,  in- 
stead of  the  employers  having  "  every  facility  placed  at 
their  disposal  for  satisfying  themselves  as  to  the  antece- 
dents of  the  convict,"  they  were  already  familiar  with  his 
antecedents. 

Finally,  let  us  not  overlook  the  fact,  that  this  course 
is  the  only  one  which,  while  duly  consulting  social  safety, 
is  also  entirely  just  to  the  prisoner.  As  we  have  shown, 
the  restraints  imposed  on  a  criminal  are  warranted  by 
absolute  equity,  only  to  the  extent  needful  to  prevent  fur- 
ther aggressions  on  his  fellow-men  ;  and  when  his  fellow- 
men  impose  greater  restraints  than  these,  they  trespass 
against  him.  /Hence,  when  a  prisoner  has  worked  out  his 
task  of  making  restitution,  and,  so  far  as  is  possible,  un- 
done the  wrong  he  had  done ;  society  is,  in  strict  justice, 
bound  to  accept  any  arrangement  which  adequately  pro- 
tects its  members  against  further  injury.  And  if,  moved 
by  the  expectation  of  profit,  or  other  motive,  any  citizen 
sufficiently  substantial  and  trustworthy,  will  take  on  him- 
self to  hold  society  harmless,  society  must  agree  to  his 
proposal.  All  it  can  rightly  require  is,  that  the  guarantee 
against  contingent  injury  shall  be  adequate ;  which,  of 
course,  it  never  can  be  where  the  contingent  injury  is  of 
the  gravest  kind.  No  bail  could  compensate  for  murder ; 
and  therefore  in  this,  and  other  extreme  crimes,  society 
would  rightly  refuse  any  such  guarantee,  even  if  offered  ; 
which  it  would  be  very  unlikely  to  be. 

Such,  then,  is  our  code  of  prison-ethics.  Such  is  the 
ideal  which  we  ought  to  keep  ever  in  view  when  modify- 
ing our  penal  system.  Again  we  say,  as  we  said  at  the 
outset,  that  the  realization  of  such  an  ideal  wholly  depends 
on  the  advance  of  civilization.  Let  no  one  carry  away 
the  impression  that  we  regard  all  these  purely  equitable 
regulations  as  immediately  practicable.       Though  they 


OBSTACLES  TO   AMELIORATION.  249 

may  be  partially  carried  out,  we  think  it  highly  improba- 
ble, or  rather  impossible,  that  they  should  at  present  be 
carried  out  in  full.  The  number  of  offenders,  the  low 
average  of  enlightenment  and  morality,  the  ill- working  of 
administrative  machinery,  and  above  all,  the  difficulty  of 
obtaining  officials  of  adequate  intelligence,  good  feeling, 
and  self-control,  are  obstacles  that  must  long  stand  in  the 
way  of  a  system  so  complex  as  that  which  morality  dic- 
tates. And  we  here  assert,  as  emphatically  as  before, 
that  the  harshest  penal  system  is  ethically  justified,  if  it  is 
as  good  as  the  circumstances  of  the  time  permit.  How- 
ever great  the  cruelties  it  inflicts,  yet  if  a  system  theoreti- 
cally more  equitable  would  not  be  a  sufficient  terror  to 
evil-doers,  or  could  not  be  worked,  from  lack  of  officers 
sufficiently  judicious,  honest,  and  humane — if  less  rigorous 
methods  would  entail  a  diminution  of  social  security ;  then 
the  methods  in  use  are  extrinsically  good,  though  intrinsi- 
cally bad :  they  are,  as  before  said,  the  least  wrong,  and 
therefore  relatively  right. 

Nevertheless,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  prove,  it  is 
immensely  important  that,  while  duly  considering  the  rela- 
tively right,  we  should  keep  the  absolutely  right  constant- 
ly in  view.  True  as  it  is,  that  in  this  transition  state,  our 
conceptions  of  the  ultimately  expedient  must  ever  be  quali- 
fied by  our  experience  of  the  proximately  expedient ;  it  is 
not  the  less  true  that  the  proximately  expedient  cannot 
be  determined  unless  the  ultimately  expedient  is  known. 
Before  we  can  say  what  is  as  good  as  the  time  permits, 
we  must  say  what  is  abstractedly  good  ;  for  the  first  idea 
involves  the  last.  We  must  have  some  fixed  standard, 
some  invariable  measure,  some  constant  clue:  otherwise 
we  shall  inevitably  be  misled  by  the  suggestions  of  imme- 
diate policy,  and  wander  away  from  the  right,  rather  than 
advance  towards  it.  This  conclusion  is,  we  think,  fully 
borne  out  by  the  facts  we  have  cited.  In  other  cases,  as 
11* 


250  PEISON-ETHICS. 

well  as  in  the  case  of  penal  discipline,  the  evidence  shows 
how  terribly  we  have  erred  from  obstinately  refusing  to 
consult  first  principles,  and  clinging  to  an  unreasoning 
empiricism.  Though,  during  civilization,  grievous  evils 
have  occasionally  arisen  from  attempts  suddenly  to  realize 
absolute  rectitude;  yet  a  greater  sum  total  of  evils  has 
arisen  from  the  more  usual  course  of  ignoring  absolute 
rectitude.  Age  after  age,  effete  institutions  have  been 
maintained  far  longer  than  they  would  else  have  been ; 
and  equitable  arrangements  have  been  needlessly  post- 
poned. Is  it  not  time  for  us  to  profit  by  past 
lessons  ? 


VII. 

EAILWAY  MOEALS    AND  EAILWAY 
POLICY. 


BELIEVERS  in  the  intrinsic  virtues  of  political  forms, 
might  draw  an  instructive  lesson  from  the  politics  of 
our  railways.  If  there  needs  a  conclusive  proof  that  the 
most  carefully-framed  constitutions  are  worthless,  unless 
they  be  embodiments  of  the  popular  character — if  there 
needs  a  conclusive  proof,  that  governmental  arrangements 
in  advance  of  the  time  will  inevitably  lapse  into  congruity 
with  the  time ;  such  proof  may  be  found  over  and  over 
again  repeated  in  the  current  history  of  joint-stock  enter- 
prises. 

As  devised  by  Act  of  Parliament,  the  administrations 
of  our  public  companies  are  almost  purely  democratic. 
The  representative  system  is  carried  out  in  them  with 
scarcely  a  check.  Shareholders  elect  their  directors,  di- 
rectors iheilL  chairman  ;  there  is  an  annual  retirement  of  a 
certain  proportion  of  the  board,  giving  facilities  for  super- 
seding them ;  and,  by  this  means,  the  whole  ruling  body 
may  be  changed  in  periods  varying  from  three  to  five 
years.  <  Yet,  not  only  are  the  characteristic  vices  of  our 
political  state  reproduced  in  each  of  these  mercantile  cor- 
porations— some  even  in  an  in  tenser  degree — but  the  very 


252  RAILWAY  MORALS   AND  RAILWAY   POLICY. 

form  of  government,  while  remaining  nominally  demo- 
cratic, is  substantially  so  remodelled  as  to  become  a  minia- 
ture of  our  national  constitution.  The  direction,  ceasing 
to  fulfil  its  theory  as  a  deliberative  body  whose  members 
possess  like  powers,  falls  under  the  control  of  some  one 
member  of  superior  cunning,  will,  or  wealth,  to  whom  the 
majority  become  so  subordinate,  that  the  decision  on  every 
question  depends  on  the  course  he  takes.  ^  Proprietors,  in- 
stead of  constantly  exercising  their  franchise,  allow  it  to 
become  on  all  ordinary  occasions  a  dead  letter :  retiring 
directors  are  so  habitually  reelected  without  opposition, 
and  have  so  great  a  power  of  insuring  their  own  election 
when  opposed,  that  the  board  becomes  practically  a  close 
body ;  and  it  is  only  when  the  misgovernment  grows  ex- 
treme enough  to  produce  a  revolutionary  agitation  among 
the  shareholders,  that  any  change  can  be  eflfected. 

^  Thus,  a  mixture  of  the  monarchic,  the  aristocratic,  and 
the  democratic  elements,  is  repeated  with  such  modifica- 
tions only  as  the  circumstances  involve.  The  modes  of 
action,  too,  are  substantially  the  same  :  save  in  this,  that 
the  copy  outruns  the  original.  Threats  of  resignation, 
which  ministries  hold  out  in  extreme  cases,  are  commonly 
made  by  railway-boards  to  stave  off  a  disagreeable  inquiry. 
By  no  means  regarding  themselves  as  servants  of  the 
shareholders,  directors  rebel  against  dictation  from  them ; 
and  frequently  construe  any  amendment  to  their  propo- 
sals into  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence.  At  half-yearly 
meetings,  disagreeable  criticism  and  objections  are  met  by 
the  chairman  with  the  remark,  that  if  the  shareholders 
cannot  trust  his  colleagues  and  himself,  they  had  better 
choose  others.  With  most,  this  assumption  of  offended 
dignity  tells  ;  and,  under  the  fear  that  the  company's  in- 
terests may  suffer  from  any  disturbance,  measures  quite  at 
variance  with  the  wishes  of  the  proprietary  are  allowed  to 
be  carried. 


COEETJPT  ADMINISTEATIONS  OF  THE  COMPAIOES.       253 

The  parallel  holds  yet  further.  If  it  be  true  of  national 
administrations,  that  those  in  office  count  on  the  support 
of  all  public  employes  ;  it  is  not  less  true  of  incorporated 
companies,  that  the  directors  are  greatly  aided  by  their 
officials  in  their  struggles  with  shareholders.  If,  in  times 
past,  there  have  been  ministries  who  spent  public  money 
to  secure  party  ends ;  there  are,  in  times  present,  railway- 
boards  who  use  the  funds  of  the  shareholders  to  defeat  the 
shareholders.  Nay,  even  in  detail,  the  similarity  is  main- 
tained. .Like  their  prototype,  joint-stock  companies  have 
their  expensive  election  contests,  managed  by  election 
committees,  employing  election  agents ;  they  have  their 
canvassing  with  its  sundry  illegitimate  accompaniments ; 
they  have  their  occasional  manufacture  of  fraudulent  votes. 
And,  as  a  general  result,  that  class-legislation,  which  has 
been  habitually  charged  against  statesmen,  is  now  habit- 
ually displayed  in  the  proceedings  of  these  trading  asso- 
ciations :  constituted  though  they  are  on  purely  represent- 
ative principles. " 

These  last  assertions  will  probably  surprise  not  a  few. 
The  general  public  who  have  little  or  no  direct  interest  in 
railway  matters — who  never  see  a  railway-journal,  and 
who  skip  the  reports  of  half-yearly  meetings  that  appear 
in  the  daily  papers — are  under  the  impression  that  dis- 
honesties akin  to  those  gigantic  ones  so  notorious  during 
the  mania,  are  no  longer  committed.  They  do  not  forget 
the  doings  of  stags  and  stock-jobbers  and  runaway  di- 
rectors. They  remember  how  men-of-straw  held  shares 
amounting  to  £100,000,  and  even  £200,000;  how  numer- 
ous directorates  were  filled  by  the  same  persons — one  hav- 
ing a  seat  at  twenty-three  boards ;  how  subscription-con- 
tracts were  made  up  with  signatures  bought  at  10s.  and 
4«.  each,  and  porters  and  errand-boys  made  themselves 
liable  for  £30,000  and  £40,000  a-piece.  They  can  narrate 
how  boards  kept  their  books  in  cipher,  made  false  regisr 


254  RAILWAY  M0EAL8   AND   RAILWAY  POLICY. 

tries,  and  refrained  from  recording  their  proceedings  in 
minute-books ;  how  in  one  company,  half-a-million  of  capi- 
tal was  put  down  to  unreal  names ;  how  in  another,  direct- 
ors bought  for  account  more  shares  than  they  issued,  and 
so  forced  up  the  price  ;  and  how  in  many  others,  they  re- 
purchased for  the  company  their  own  shares,  paying  them- 
selves with  the  depositors'  money. 

But,  though  more  or  less  aware  of  the  iniquities  that 
have  been  practised,  the  generality  think  of  them  solely 
as  the  accompaniments  of  bubble  schemes.  More  recent 
enterprises  they  know  to  have  been  bond  fide  ones,  mostly 
carried  out  by  old-established  companies ;  and  knowing 
this,  they  do  not  suspect  that  in  the  getting-up  of  branch- 
lines  and  extensions,  there  are  chicaneries  near  akin  to 
those  of  Capel  Court ;  and  quite  as  disastrous  in  their  ulti- 
mate results.  Associating  the  ideas  of  wealth  and  re- 
spectability, and  habitually  using  respectability  as  synony- 
mous with  morality,  it  seems  to  them  incredible  that 
many  of  the  large  capitalists  and  men  of  station  who 
administer  railway  affairs,  should  be  guilty  of  indirectly 
enriching  themselves  at  the  expense  of  their  constituents. 
True,  they  occasionally  meet  with  a  law-report  disclosing 
some  enormous  fraud ;  or  read  a  Times  leader,  character- 
izing du-ectorial  acts  in  terms  that  are  held  libellous.  But 
they  regard  the  cases  thus  brought  to  light  as  entirely  ex- 
ceptional ;  and  under  that  feeling  of  loyalty  which  ever 
idealizes  men  in  authority,  they  constantly  tend  towards 
the  conviction,  if  not  that  directors  can  do  no  wrong,  yet 
that  they  are  very  unlikely  to  do  wrong. 

A  history  of  railway  management  and  railway  in- 
trigue, however,  would  quickly  undeceive  them.  In  such 
a  history,  the  doings  of  projectors  and  the  mysteries  of  the 
share-market  would  occupy  less  space  than  the  analysis  of 
the  multiform  dishonesties  which  have  been  committed 
since  1845,  and  the  genesis  of  that  elaborate  system  of 


DISHONESTIES   OF  THE  MANAGEES.  255 

tactics  by  which  companies  are  betrayed  into  ruinous  un- 
dertakings that  benefit  the  few  at  the  cost  of  the  many. 
Such  a  history  would  not  only  have  to  detail  the  doings 
of  the  personage  famed  for  "  making  things  pleasant ; " 
nor  would  it  have  merely  to  add  the  misdeeds  of  his  col- 
leagues ;  but  it  would  have  to  describe  the  kindred  cor- 
ruptness of  other  railway  administrations.  From  the  pub- 
lished report  of  an  investigation-committee,  it  would  be 
shown  how,  not  many  years  since,  the  directors  of  one  of 
our  lines  allotted  among  themselves  15,000  new  shares 
then  at  a  premium  in  the  market ;  how  to  pay  the  deposits 
on  these  shares  they  used  the  company's  funds  ;  and  how 
one  of  their  number  thus  accommodated  himself  in  meet- 
ing both  deposits  and  calls  to  the  extent  of  more  than 
£80,000.  We  should  read  in  it  of  one  railway  chairman 
who,  with  the  secretary's  connivance,  retained  shares  ex- 
ceeding a  quarter  of  a  million  in  amount,  intending  to 
claim  them  as  his  allotment  if  they  rose  to  a  premium ; 
and  who,  as  they  did  not  do  so,  left  them  as  unissued 
shares  on  the  hands  of  the  proprietors,  to  their  vast  loss. 
We  should  also  read  in  it  of  directors  who  made  loans  to 
themselves  out  of  the  company's  floating  balances  at  a 
low  rate  of  interest,  when  the  market  rate  was  high ;  and 
who  paid  themselves  larger  salaries  than  those  assigned : 
entering  the  difference  in  an  obscure  comer  of  the  ledger 
under  the  head  of  "petty  disbursements."  There  would 
be  a  description  of  the  manoeuvres  by  which  a  delinquent 
board,  under  impending  investigation,  gets  a  favourable 
committee  nominated — "  a  whitewashing  committee." 
There  would  be  documents  showing  that  the  proxies  ena- 
bling boards  to  carry  contested  measures,  have  in  some 
cases  been  obtained  by  garbled  statements;  and,  again,  that 
proxies  given  for  a  specific  purpose  have  been  used  for 
other  purposes.  One  of  our  companies  would  be  proved 
to  have  projected  a  line,  serving  as  a  feeder,  for  which  it 


256  RAILWAY  MOEALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

obtained  shareholders  by  offering  a  guaranteed  dividend, 
which,  though  understood  by  the  public  to  be  uncondi- 
tional, was  really  contingent  upon  a  condition  not  likely 
to  be  fulfilled.  The  managers  of  another  company  would 
be  convicted  of  having  carried  party  measures  by  the  aid 
of  preference-shares  standing  in  the  names  of  station-mas- 
ters ;  and  of  being  aided  by  the  proxies  of  the  secretary's 
children  too  young  to  write. 

That  the  corruptions  here  glanced  at  are  not  merely 
exceptional  evils,  but  result  from  some  deep-seated  vice 
ramifying  throughout  our  system  of  railway-government, 
is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  simple  fact,  that  notwithstand- 
ing the  depreciation  of  railway-dividends  produced  by  the 
extension  policy,  that  policy  has  been  year  after  year  con- 
tinued. Does  any  tradesman,  who,  having  enlarged  his 
shop,  finds  a  proportionate  diminution  in  his  rate  of  profits, 
go  on,  even  under  the  stimulus  of  competition,  making 
further  enlargements  at  the  risk  of  further  diminutions  ? 
Does  any  merchant,  however  strong  his  desire  to  take 
away  an  opponent's  markets,  make  successive  mortgages 
on  his  capital,  and  pay  for  each  sum  thus  raised  a  higher 
interest  than  he  gains  by  trading  with  it  ?  Yet  this 
course,  so  absurd  that  no  one  would  insult  a  private  indi- 
vidual by  asking  him  to  follow  it,  is  the  course  which  rail- 
way-boards, at  meeting  after  meeting,  persuade  their 
clients  to  pursue.  Since  1845,  when  the  dividends  of  our 
leading  lines  ranged  from  8  to  10  per  cent.,  they  have, 
notwithstanding  an  ever-growing  traffic,  fallen  from  10  per 
cent,  to  5,  from  8  to  4,  from  9  to  3 J ;  and  yet  the  system 
of  extensions,  leases,  and  guarantees,  notoriously  the  cause 
of  this,  has  been  year  by  year  persevered  in.  Is  there 
not  something  needing  explanation  here — something  more 
than  the  world  is  allowed  to  see  ?  If  tliere  be  any  one  to 
whom  the  broad  fact  of  obstinate  persistence  in  unprofita- 
ble expenditure  does  not  alone  carry  the  conviction  that 


IMPOSITION   UPON  THE  SHAEEHOLDERS.  257 

sinister  influences  are  at  work,  let  him  read  the  seductive 
statements  by  which  shareholders  are  led  to  authorize 
new  projects,  and  then  compare  these  with  the  proved 
results.  Let  him  look  at  the  estimated  cost,  anticipated 
traffic,  and  calculated  dividend  on  some  proposed  branch 
line ;  let  him  observe  how  the  proprietary  before  whom 
the  scheme  is  laid,  are  induced  to  approve  it  as  promising 
a  fair  return ;  and  then  let  him  contemplate,  in  the  result- 
ing depreciation  of  stock,  the  extent  of  their  loss.  Is 
there  any  avoiding  the  inference  ?  Clearly,  railway-share* 
holders  can  never  have  habitually  voted  for  new  under- 
takings which  they  knew  would  be  injurious  to  them. 
Every  one  knows,  however,  that  these  new  undertakings 
have  almost  uniformly  proved  injurious  to  them.  Ob- 
viously, therefore,  railway-shareholders  have  been  contin- 
ually deluded  by  false  representations. 

The  only  possible  escape  from  this  conclusion  is  in  the 
belief  that  boards  and  their  officers  have  been  themselves 
deceived ;  and  were  the  discrepancies  between  promises 
and  results  occasional  only,  there  would  be  grounds  for 
this  lenient  interpretation.  But  to  suppose  that  a  railway- 
government  should  repeatedly  make  such  mistakes,  and 
yet  gain  no  wisdom  from  disastrous  experiences — should 
after  a  dozen  disappointments  again  mislead  half-yearly 
meetings  by  bright  anticipations  into  dark  realities,  and 
all  in  good  faith — taxes  credulity  somewhat  too  far.  Even, 
then,  were  there  no  demonstrated  iniquities  to  rouse  sus- 
picion, we  think  that  the  continuous  depreciation  in  the 
value  of  railway-stock,  the  determined  perseverance  of 
boards  in  the  policy  that  has  produced  this  depreciation, 
and  the  proved  untruth  of  the  statements  by  which  they 
have  induced  shareholders  to  sanction  this  policy,  would 
of  themselves  suffice  to  show  the  essential  viciousness  of 
railway-administration. 

That  the  existing  evils,  and  the  causes  conspiring  to 


258  EAILWAY  MORALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY.    ' 

produce  them,  may  be  better  understood,  it  will  be  need- 
ful briefly  to  glance  at  the  mode  in  which  the  system  of 
extensions  grew  up.  Earliest  among  the  incentives  to  it 
was  a  feeling  of  rivalry.  Even  while  yet  their  main  lines 
were  unmade,  a  contest  for  supremacy  arose  between  our 
two  greatest  companies.  This  presently  generated  a  con- 
firmed antagonism ;  and  the  same  impulse  which  in  elec- 
tion contests  and  the  like,  has  frequently  led  to  the  squan- 
dering of  a  fortune  to  gain  a  victory,  has  largely  aided  to 
make  each  of  these  great  rivals  submit  to  repeated  sacri- 
fices rather  than  be  beaten.  Feuds  of  like  nature  are  in 
other  cases  perpetually  prompting  boards  to  make  aggres- 
sions on  each  other's  territories — every  attack  on  the  one 
side  leading  to  a  reprisal  on  the  other :  and  so  violent  is 
the  hostility  occasionally  produced,  that  directors  might 
be  pointed  out  whose  votes  are  wholly  determined  by  the 
desire  to  be  revenged  on  their  opponents. 

Among  the  first  methods  by  which  leading  companies 
sought  to  strengthen  themselves  and  weaken  their  com- 
petitors, was  the  leasing  or  purchase  of  subordinate  neigh- 
bouring lines.  Of  course  those  to  whom  overtures  were 
made,  obtained  bids  from  both  sides;  and  it  naturally 
resulted  that  the  first  sales  thus  efiected,  being  at  prices  far 
above  the  real  values,  brought  great  profits  to  the  sellers. 
What  resulted  ?  A  few  recurrences  of  this  proceeding, 
made  it  clear  to  quick-witted  speculators,  that  construct- 
ing lines  so  circumstanced  as  to  be  bid  for  by  competing 
companies,  would  be  a  lucrative  policy.  Shareholders 
who  had  once  pocketed  these  large  and  easily-made  gains, 
were  eager  to  repeat  the  process  ;  and  cast  about  for  dis- 
tricts in  which  it  might  be  done.  Even  the  directors  of 
the  companies  by  whom  these  high  prices  were  given, 
were  under  the  temptation  to  aid  in  this ;  for  it  was  mani- 
fest to  them  that  by  obtaining  a  larger  interest  in  any 
such  new  undertaking  than  they  possessed  in  the  pur- 


GETTING  TIP   SUBSIDIAEY  LINES.  259 

chasing  company,  and  by  using  their  influence  in  the  pur- 
chasing company  to  obtain  a  good  price  or  guarantee  for 
the  new  undertaking,  a  great  advantage  would  be  gained : 
and  that  this  motive  has  been  largely  operative,  railway 
history  abundantly  proves. 

Once  commenced,  sundry  other  influences  conspired  to 
stimulate  this  making  of  feeders  and  extensions.  The  non- 
closure of  capital-accounts  rendered  possible  the  "  cook- 
ing" of  dividends,  which  was  at  one  period  carried  to  a 
great  extent.  Under  various  incentives,  speculative  and 
other,  expenditure  that  should  have  been  charged  against 
revenue  was  charged  against  capital ;  works  and  rolling 
stock  were  allowed  to  go  unrepaired,  or  insufiicient  addi- 
tions made  to  them,  by  which  means  the  current  expenses 
were  rendered  delusively  small;  long-credit  agreements 
mth  contractors  permitted  sundry  disbursements  that  had 
been  virtually  made,  to  be  kept  out  of  the  accounts ;  and 
thus  the  net  returns  were  made  to  appear  much  greater 
than  they  really  were.  Naturally  the  new  undertakings 
put  before  the  moneyed  world  by  companies  whose  stock 
and  dividends  had  been  thus  artificially  raised,  were  re- 
ceived -with  proportionate  favour.  Under  the  prestige  of 
their  parentage  their  shares  came  out  at  high  premiums, 
bringing  large  profits  to  the  projectors.  The  hint  was 
soon  taken ;  and  it  presently  became  an  established  pol- 
icy, under  the  auspices  of  a  prosperity  either  real  or  mock, 
to  get  up  these  subsidiary  lines — "  calves,"  as  they  were 
called  in  the  slang  of  the  initiated — and  to  traffic  in  the 
premiums  their  shares  commanded. 

Meanwhile  had  been  developing  a  secondary  set  of 
influences  which  also  contributed  to  foster  unwise  enter- 
prises ;  namely,  the  business  interests  of  the  lawyers, 
engineers,  contractors,  and  others  directly  or  indirectly 
employed  in  railway  construction.  The  methods  of  pro- 
jecting and  carrying  new  schemes,  could  not  fail,  in  the 


260  RAILWAY  MORALS   AlH)  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

course  of  years,  to  become  familiar  to  all  persons  con- 
cerned ;  and  there  could  not  fail  to  grow  up  among  them 
a  concerted  system  of  tactics  calculated  to  achieve  their 
common  end.  Thus,  partly  from  the  jealousy  of  rival 
boards,  partly  from  the  avarice  of  shareholders  in  pur- 
chased lines,  partly  from  the  dishonest  schemings  of  direct- 
ors, partly  from  the  manoeuvres  of  those  whose  business 
it  is  to  carry  out  the  projects  legally  authorized,  partly, 
and  perhaps  mainly,  from  the  delusive  appearance  of  pros- 
perity maintained  by  many  established  companies,  there 
came  the  wild  speculations  of  1844  and  1845.  The  conse- 
quent disasters,  while  they  pretty  well  destroyed  the  last 
of  these  incentives,  left  the  rest  much  as  they  were. 
Though  the  painfully-undeceived  public  have  ceased  to 
aid  as  they  once  did,  the  various  private  interests  that  had 
grown  up  have  since  been  working  together  as  before — 
have  developed  their  systems  of  cooperation  into  still 
more  complex  and  subtle  forms  ;  and  are  even  now  daily 
thrusting  unfortunate  shareholders  into  losing  undertak- 
ings. 

Before  proceeding  to  analyze  the  existing  state  of 
things,  however,  we  would  have  it  clearly  understood  that 
we  do  not  suppose  those  implicated  to  be  07i  the  average 
morally  lower  than  the  community  at  large.  Men  taken 
at  random  from  any  class,  would,  in  all  probability,  behave 
much  in  the  same  way  when  placed  in  like  positions. 
There  are  unquestionably  directors  grossly  dishonest. 
Unquestionably  also  there  are  others  whose  standard  of 
honour  is  far  higher  than  that  of  most  persons.  And  for 
the  remainder,  they  are,  we  doubt  not,  as  good  as  the 
mass.  Of  the  engineers,  parliamentary  agents,  lawyers, 
contractors,  and  various  others  concerned,  it  may  be  ad- 
mitted that  though  daily  custom  has  induced  laxity  of 
principle,  yet  they  would  be  harshly  judged  were  the 
transactions  that  may  be  recorded  against  them,  used  as 


INFEEIORITY   OF   THE  CORPORATE   CONSCIENCE.       261 

tests.  Those  who  do  not  see  how  in  these  involved  af- 
fairs, the  most  inequitable  results  may  be  wrought  out  by 
men  not  correspondingly  flagitious,  will  readily  do  so  on 
considering  all  the  conditions. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  familiar  fact  that  the  cor- 
porate conscience  is  ever  inferior  to  the  individual  con- 
science— that  a  body  of  men  will  commit  as  a  joint  act, 
that  which  every  individual  of  them  would  shrink  from, 
did  he  feel  personally  responsible.  And  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  not  only  is  the  conduct  of  a  corporate  body 
thus  comparatively  lax,  but  also  the  conduct  towards  one. 
There  is  ever  a  more  or  less  distinct  perception,  that  a 
broad-backed  company  scarcely  feels  what  would  be  ruin- 
ous to  a  private  person ;  and  this  perception  is  in  constant 
operation  on  all  railway-boards  and  their  employes,  as  well 
as  on  all  contractors,  landowners,  and  others  concerned ; 
leading  them  to  show  a  graspingness  and  want  of  princi- 
ple foreign  to  theii*  general  behaviour.  Again,  the  indi- 
rectness and  remoteness  of  the  evils  produced,  greatly 
weaken  the  restraints  on  wrong-doing.  Men's  actions  are 
proximately  produced  by  mental  representations  of  the 
results  to  be  anticipated;  and  the  decisions  come  to, 
largely  depend  on  the  vividness  with  which  these  results 
can  be  imagined.  A  consequence,  good  or  bad,  that  is 
immediate  and  clearly  apprehended,  influences  conduct  far 
more  potently  than  a  consequence  that  has  to  be  traced 
through  a  long  chain  of  causation,  and,  as  eventually 
reached,  is  not  a  particular  and  readily  conceivable  one, 
but  a  general  and  vaguely  conceivable  one.  Hence,  in 
railway  afiairs,  a  questionable  share-transaction,  an  exor- 
bitant charge,  a  proceeding  which  brings  great  individual 
advantage  without  apparently  injuring  any  one,  but  which, 
even  if  analyzed  in  its  ultimate  results,  can  but  very  cii*- 
cuitously  affect  unknown  persons  living  no  one  knows 
where,  may  be  brought  home  to  men  who,  could  the  re* 


RAILWAY  MORALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

suits  be  embodied  before  them,  would  be  shocked  at  the 
cruel  injustices  they  had  committed — men  who  in  their 
private  business,  where  the  results  can  be  thus  embodied, 
are  suflSciently  equitable. 

Further,  it  requires  to  be  noted  that  most  of  these 
great  delinquencies  are  wrought  out,  not  by  the  extreme 
dishonesty  of  any  one  man  or  group  of  men,  but  by  the 
combined  self-interest  of  many  men  and  groups  of  men, 
whose  minor  delinquencies  are  cumulative.  Much  as  a 
story  which,  passing  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  receiving 
a  slight  exaggeration  at  each  repetition,  comes  round  to 
the  original  narrator  in  a  form  scarcely  to  be  recognized  ; 
so,  by  a  little  improper  influence  on  the  part  of  landown- 
ers, a  little  favouritism  on  the  part  of  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, a  little  intriguing  of  lawyers,  a  little  manoeuvring 
by  contractors  and  engineers,  a  little  self-seeking  on  the 
part  of  directors,  a  little  under-statement  of  estimates  and 
over-statement  of  traffic,  a  little  magnifying  of  the  evils 
to  be  avoided  and  the  benefits  to  be  gained — it  happens 
that  shareholders  are  betrayed  into  ruinous  undertakings 
by  grossly  untrue  representations,  without  any  one  being 
guilty  of  more  than  a  small  portion  of  the  fraud.  Bearing 
in  mind  then,  the  comparative  laxity  of  the  corporate  con- 
science ;  the  diffusion  and  remoteness  of  the  evils  which 
malpractices  produce ;  and  the  composite  origin  of  these 
malpractices ;  it  becomes  possible  to  understand  how,  in 
railway  affairs,  gigantic  dishonesties  can  be  perpetrated 
by  men,  who,  on  the  average,  are  little  if  at  all  below  the 
generality  in  moral  character. 

With  this  preliminary  mitigation  we  proceed  to  detail 
the  various  illegitimate  agencies  by  which  these  seemingly 
insane  extensions  and  this  continual  squandering  of  share- 
holders' property  are  brought  about. 

Conspicuous  among  these  is  the  self-interest  of  land- 


GBEED   OF   LAND-OWNEKS.  263 

owners.  Once  the  greatest  obstacles  to  railway  enter- 
prise, owners  of  estates  have  of  late  years  been  among  its 
chief  promoters.  Since  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
line  was  first  defeated  by  landed  opposition,  and  succeeded 
with  its  second  bill  only  by  keeping  out  of  sight  of  all 
mansions,  and  avoiding  the  game  preserves — since  the 
time  when  the  London  and  Birmingham  Company,  after 
seeing  their  project  thrown  out  by  a  committee  of  peers 
who  ignored  the  evidence,  had  to  "  conciliate  "  their  an- 
tagonists by  raising  the  estimate  for  land  from  £250,000 
to  £750,000 — since  the  time  when  Parliamentary  counsel 
bolstered  up  a  groundless  resistance  by  the  flimsiest  and 
absurdest  excuses,  even  to  reproaching  engineers  with 
having  "  trodden  down  the  corn  of  widows "  and  "  de- 
stroyed the  strawberry-beds  of  gardeners  " — since  then,  a 
marked  change  of  policy  has  taken  place.  Nor  was  it  in 
human  nature  that  it  should  be  otherwise.  When  it  be- 
came known  that  railway  companies  commonly  paid  for 
"  land  and  compensation,"  sums  varying  from  £4,000  to 
£8,000  per  mile ;  that  men  were  indemnified  for  supposed 
injury  to  their  property,  by  sums  so  inordinate  that  the 
greater  part  has  been  known  to  be  returned  by  the  heir  as 
conscience-money;  that  in  one  case  £120,000  was  given 
for  land  said  to  be  worth  but  £5,000 — when  it  was  bruited 
abroad  that  large  bonuses  in  the  shape  of  preference  shares 
and  the  like,  were  granted  to  buy  off  opposition — when  it 
came  to  be  an  established  fact  that  estates  are  greatly  en- 
hanced in  value  by  the  proximity  of  railways ;  it  is  not 
surprising  that  country  gentlemen  should  have  become 
active  supporters  of  schemes  to  which  they  were  once  the 
bitterest  enemies.  On  considering  the  many  temptations, 
we  shall  see  nothing  wonderful  in  the  fact  that  in  1845 
they  were  zealous  provisional  committee-men  ;  nor  in  the 
fact  that  their  influence  as  promoters  enabled  them  to  get 
large  sums  for  their  own  acres  ;  nor  in  the  fact  that  they 


264:  EAILWAY  MORALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

committed  various  acts  sufficiently  reprehensible  from  any 
but  their  own  point  of  view. 

If  we  are  told  of  squires  soliciting  intei'views  with  the 
engineer  of  a  projected  railway ;  prompting  him  to  take 
their  side  of  the  country ;  promising  support  if  he  did, 
and  threatemng  opposition  if  he  did  not ;  dictating  the 
course  to  be  followed  through  their  domains,  and  hinting 
that  a  good  price  would  be  expected  ;  we  are  simply  told 
of  the  special  modes  in  which  certain  private  interests 
show  themselves.  If  we  hear  of  an  extensive  landowner 
using  his  influence  as  chairman  of  a  board  of  directors,  to 
project  a  branch  running  for  many  miles  through  his  own 
estate,  and  putting  his  company  to  the  cost  of  a  parlia- 
Mientary  contest  to  carry  this  line ;  we  hear  only  of  that 
which  was  likely  to  occur  under  such  circumstances.  If 
we  find  now  before  the  public,  a  line  proposed  by  a  large 
capitalist,  serving  among  other  ends  to  effect  desirable 
communications  with  his  property,  and  the  estimates  for 
which  line,  though  considered  by  the  engineering  world 
insufficient,  are  alleged  by  him  to  be  ample  ;  we  have  but 
a  marked  case  of  the  distorted  representations  which  un- 
der such  conditions  self-interest  is  sure  to  engender.  If 
we  discover  of  this  or  that  scheme,  that  it  was  got  up  by 
the  local  nobility  and  gentry — that  they  employed  to 
make  the  survey  a  third-rate  engineer,  who  was  ready  in 
anticipation  of  future  benefit  to  do  this  for  his  bare  ex- 
penses— that  principals  and  agent  wearied  the  directors 
of  an  adjacent  trunk-line  to  take  up  their  project ;  threat- 
ened that  if  they  did  not  their  great  rival  would  ;  alarmed 
them  into  concession ;  asked  for  a  contribution  to  their 
expenses  ;  and  would  have  gained  all  these  points  but  for 
shareholders'  resistance — we  do  but  discover  the  organized 
tactics  which  in  process  of  time  naturally  grow  up  under 
such  stimuli.  It  is  not  that  these  facts  are  particularly 
remarkable.     From  the  gross  instance  of  the  landowner 


PRESSURE  OF  THE  LANDED  INTEREST.  265 

who  asked  £8,000  for  that  which  he  eventually  accepted 
£80  for,  down  to  the  every-day  instances  of  influence  used 
to  get  railway  accommodation  for  the  neighbourhood,  the 
acts  of  the  landed  class  are  simply  manifestations  of  the 
average  character  acting  under  special  conditions.  All 
that  it  now  behooves  us  to  notice,  is,  that  we  have  here  a 
large  and  powerful  body  whose  interests  are  ever  pressing 
on  railway  extension,  irrespective  of  its  intrinsic  propriety. 
The  great  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  Legislature 
towards  railways,  from  "  the  extreme  of  determined  rejec- 
tion or  dilatory  acquiescence,  to  the  opposite  extreme  of 
unlimited  concession,"  was  simultaneous  with  the  change 
above  described.  It  could  not  well  fail  to  be  so.  Supply- 
ing, as  the  landowning  community  does,  so  large  a  portion 
of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  it  necessarily  follows  that 
the  play  of  private  interests  seen  in  the  first,  repeats  itself 
in  the  last  under  modified  forms,  and  complicated  by  other 
influences.  Remembering  the  extent  to  which  legislators 
were  themselves  involved  in  the  speculations  of  the  mania, 
it  is  scarcely  probable  that  they  should  since  have  been 
free  from  personal  bias.  A  return  proved,  that  in  1845 
there  were  157  members  of  Parliament  whose  names  were 
on  the  registers  of  new  companies  for  sums  varying  from 
£291,000  downwards.  The  supporters  of  new  projects 
boasted  of  the  number  of  votes  they  could  command  in 
the  House.  Members  were  personally  canvassed,  and 
peers  were  solicited.  It  was  publicly  complained  in  the 
upper  chamber,  that  "  it  was  nearly  impossible  to  bring 
together  a  jury,  some  members  of  which  were  not  inter- 
ested in  the  railway  they  were  about  to  assess."  Doubt- 
less this  state  of  things  was  in  a  great  degree  exceptional ; 
and  there  has  since  been  not  only  a  diminution  of  the 
temptations,  but  a  marked  increase  of  equitable  feeling. 
Still,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  private  interests  should 
cease  to  act.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  a  landowner 
12 


266  EAILWAY  M0EAL8  AND  EAILWAY  POLICY. 

who,  out  of  Parliament,  exerts  himself  to  get  a  railway 
for  his  district,  should,  when  in  Parliament,  not  employ 
the  power  his  new  position  gives  him  to  the  same  end.  It 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  accumulation  of  such  indi- 
vidual  actions  should  leave  the  legislative  policy  un- 
changed. Hence  the  fact,  that  the  influence  once  used  to 
throw  out  railway  bills  is  now  used  to  carry  them.  Hence 
the  fact,  that  railway  committees  no  longer  require  a  good 
traffic  case  to  be  made  out  in  justification  of  the  powers 
asked.  Hence  the  fact,  that  the  directors  and  chairmen 
of  boards  having  seats  in  the  House  of  Commons,  are 
induced  to  pledge  their  companies  to  carry  out  extensions. 

We  could  name  a  member  of  Parliament,  who,  having 
bought  an  estate  fitly  situated,  offered  to  an  engineer,  also 
in  Parliament,  the  making  of  a  railway  running  through 
it ;  and  having  obtained  the  Act  (in  doing  which  the  influ- 
ence of  himself  and  his  friend  were  of  course  useful),  pit- 
ted three  railway  companies  against  each  other  for  the 
purchase  of  it.  "We  could  name  another  member  of  Par- 
liament, who,  having  projected,  and  obtained  powers  for, 
an  extension  through  his  property,  induced  the  directors 
of  the  main  line,  with  whom  he  had  great  influence,  to 
subscribe  half  the  capital  for  his  extension,  to  work  it  for 
fifty  per  cent,  of  the  gross  receipts,  and  to  give  up  all  traf- 
fic brought  by  it  on  to  the  main  line  until  he  received  four 
per  cent,  on  his  capital ;  which  was  tantamount  to  a  four 
per  cent,  guarantee. 

But  it  is  not  only,  nor  indeed  mainly,  from  directly 
personal  motives  that  legislators  have  of  late  years  unduly 
fostered  railway  enterprises.  Indirect  motives  of  various 
kinds  have  been  largely  operative.  The  wish  to  satisfy 
constituents  has  been  one.  Inhabitants  of  unaccommo- 
dated districts,  are  naturally  urgent  with  their  representa- 
tives to  help  them  to  a  line.  Such  representatives  are  not 
unfrequently  conscious  that  their  next  elections  may  pos- 


SELFISH  INTEEESTS   INVOLVED.  267 

-eibly  turn  upon  their  successful  response  to  this  appeal. 
Even  when  there  is  no  popular  pressure  there  is  the  press- 
ure of  their  leading  political  supporters — of  large  land- 
holders whom  it  will  not  do  to  neglect ;  of  the  magis- 
tracy, with  whom  it  is  needful  to  he  on  good  terms ;  of 
local  lawyers,  important  as  electioneering  friends,  to  whom  a 
railway  always  brings  business.  Thus,  without  having  any 
immediately  private  ends,  members  of  Parliament  are  often 
almost  coerced  into  pressing  forward  schemes  which,  from 
a  national  or  from  a  shareholder's  point  of  view,  are  very 
unwise  ones.  Then  there  comes  the  still  less  direct  stim- 
uli. Where  neither  personal  nor  political  ends  are  to  be 
gained,  there  are  still  the  interests  of  a  relative  to  be  sub- 
served; or,  if  not  those  of  a  relative,  still  those  of  a 
friend.  And  where  there  is  no  decided  impulse  to  the 
contrary,  these  motives,  of  course,  have  their  weight. 
Moreover,  it  requires  in  fairness  to  be  said,  that  possessed 
as  most  members  of  Parliament  are,  with  the  belief  that 
all  railway-making  is  nationally  beneficial,  there  exist  in 
their  minds  few  or  no  reasons  for  resisting  the  influences 
brought  to  bear  on  them.  True,  shareholders  may  be  in- 
jured ;  but  that  is  their  own  affair : — the  public  will  be 
better  served ;  constituents  will  be  satisfied ;  friends  will 
be  pleased ;  perhaps  personal  ends  gained :  and  under 
some  or  all  of  these  incentives  affirmative  votes  are  read- 
ily given.  Thus,  from  the  Legislature  also,  there  has  of 
late  years  proceeded  a  factitious  stimulus  to  railway  ex 
tensions. 

From  Parliament  to  Parliamentary  agents,  and  the 
general  body  of  lawyers  concerned  in  railway  enterprise 
is  a  ready  transition.  With  these,  the  getting  up  and  car- 
rying of  new  lines  and  branches  is  a  matter  of  business. 
Whoever  studies  the  process  of  obtaining  a  railway  Act. 
or  considers  the  number  of  legal  transactions  involved  in 
the  execution  of  railway  works,  or  notes  the  large  sums 


268  RAILWAY  MORALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

that  figure  in  half-yearly  reports  under  the  head  of  "  law 
charges;"  will  at  once  see  how  strong  are  the  temptations 
which  a  new  project  holds  out  to  solicitors,  conveyancers, 
and  counsel.  It  has  been  shown  that  in  past  years,  par- 
liamentary expenses  have  varied  from  £650  to  £3,000  per 
mile ;  of  which  a  large  proportion  has  gone  into  the  pock- 
ets of  the  profession.  In  one  contest,  £57,000  was  spent 
among  six  counsel  and  twenty  solicitors.  At  a  late  meet- 
ing of  one  of  our  companies  it  was  pointed  out,  that  the 
sum  expended  in  legal  and  parliamentary  expenses  during 
nine  years,  had  reached  £480,000;  or  had  averaged 
£53,500  a-year.  With  these  and  scores  of  like  facts  be- 
fore them,  it  would  indeed  be  strange  did  not  so  acute  a 
body  of  men  as  lawyers  use  vigorous  efforts  and  sagacious 
devices  to  promote  fresh  enterprises.  Indeed,  if  we  look 
back  at  the  proceedings  of  1845,  we  shall  suspect,  not  only 
that  lawyers  are  still  the  active  promoters  of  fresh  enter- 
^prises,  but  often  the  originators  of  them.  Most  people 
have  heard  how  in  those  excited  times  the  projects  daily 
announced  were  frequently  set  afloat  by  local  solicitors — 
how  these  looked  over  maps  to  see  where  plausible  lines 
could  be  sketched  out — how  they  canvassed  the  local  gen- 
try to  obtain  provisional  committeemen — ^how  they  agreed 
with  engineers  to  make  trial  surveys — ^how,  under  the 
wild  hopes  of  the  day,  they  found  little  difficulty  in  form- 
ing companies — ^and  how  most  of  them  managed  to  get  as 
far  as  the  Committee  on  Standing  Orders,  if  no  farther. 

Remembering  all  this,  and  remembering  that  those 
who  were  successful  are  not  likely  to  have  forgotten  their 
cunning,  but  rather  to  have  yearly  exercised  and  increased 
it,  we  may  naturally  expect  to  find  railway  lawyers  among 
the  most  influential  of  the  many  parties  conspiring  to  urge 
railway  proprietaries  into  disastrous  undertakings :  and 
we  shall  not  be  deceived.  To  a  great  extent  they  are  in 
league  with  engineers.     From  the  proposal  to  the  comple- 


EVIL   INFLUENCE   OF  EAILWAY   LAWYERS.  269 

tion  of  a  new  line,  the  lawyer  and  the  engineer  work  to- 
gether ;  and  their  interests  are  throughout  identical.  While 
the  one  makes  the  survey,  the  other  prepares  the  book 
of  reference.  The  parish  plans  which  the  one  gets  ready, 
the  other  deposits.  The  notices  to  owners  and  occupiers 
which  the  one  fills  in,  the  other  serves  upon  those  con- 
cerned. Throughout,  there  is  continual  consultation  be- 
tween them  as  to  the  dealing  with  local  opposition  and 
the  obtainment  of  local  support.  In  the  getting  up  of 
their  case  for  Parliament,  they  necessarily  act  in  concert. 
While,  before  Committee,  the  one  gets  his  ten  guineas  per 
day  for  attending  to  give  evidence  ;  the  other  makes  prof- 
its on  all  the  complicated  transactions  which  carrying  a 
bill  involves.  During  the  execution  of  the  works  they 
are  in  frequent  correspondence ;  and  alike  profit  by  any 
expansion  of  the  undertaking.  Thus  there  naturally  arises 
in  each,  the  perception  that  in  aiding  the  other  he  is  aid- 
ing himself:  and  gradually,  as,  in  course  of  years,  the 
proceedings  come  to  be  often  repeated,  and  a  perfect  famil- 
iarity with  railway  politics  gained,  there  grows  up  a  well- 
organized  system  of  cooperation  between  them — a  system 
rendered  the  more  efficient  by  the  wealth  and  influence 
which  each  has  year  by  year  accumulated. 

Among  the  manoeuvres  employed  by  railway  solicitors 
thus  established  and  thus  helped,  not  the  least  remarka- 
ble is  that  of  getting  their  own  nominees  elected  as  direct- 
ors. Startling  though  it  may  seem,  it  is  yet  a  fact,  which 
we  state  on  good  authority,  that  there  are  puppet-direct- 
ors who  vote  for  this  or  that  at  the  instigation  of  the 
company's  lawyer,  whose  creatures  they  are.  The  obtain- 
ment of  such  tools  is  by  no  means  difficult.  Vacancies  are 
about  to  occur  in  the  directorate.  Almost  always  there  are 
sundry  men  over  whom  a  solicitor,  conducting  the  extensive 
law-business  of  a  railway,  has  considerable  power;  not  only 
connections  and  friends,  but  clients  and  persons  to  whom 


270  EAILWAT  MORALS   AND  EAILWAT  POLICY. 

in  his  legal  capacity  he  can  do  great  benefit  or  great  injury 
He  selects  the  most  suitable  of  these;  giving  the  pref- 
erence, if  other  things  are  equal,  to  one  living  in  the  coun- 
try near  the  line.  On  opening  the  matter  to  him,  he  points 
out  the  sundry  advantages  attendant  on  a  director's  posi- 
tion— the  free  pass  and  the  many  facilities  it  gives ;  the 
annual  £100  or  so  which  the  office  brings ;  the  honour  and 
influence  accruing  ;  the  opportunities  for  profitable  invest- 
ment that  are  likely  to  occur ;  and  so  forth.  Should  igno- 
rance of  railway  affairs  be  raised  as  an  objection,  the 
tempter,  in  whose  eyes  this  ignorance  is  a  chief  recom- 
mendation, replies  that  he  shall  always  be  at  hand  to 
guide  his  votes.  Should  non-possession  of  a  due  amount 
of  the  company's  stock  be  pleaded,  the  tempter  readily 
meets  the  difficulty  by  offering  himself  to  furnish  the 
needful  qualification.  Thus  incited  and  flattered,  and  per- 
haps conscious  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  refuse,  the 
intended  puppet  allows  himself  to  be  put  in  nomination ; 
and  as  it  is  the  general  habit  of  half-yearly  meetings,  un- 
less under  great  indignation,  to  elect  any  one  proposed  to 
them  by  those  in  authority,  the  nomination  is  successful. 
On  subsequent  occasions  this  proceeding  can,  of  course,  be 
repeated ;  and  thus  the  company's  legal  agent  and  those 
leagued  with  him,  may  command  sufficient  votes  to  turn 
the  scale  in  their  own  favour. 

Then,  to  the  personal  interest  and  power  of  the  head 
solicitor,  have  to  be  added  those  of  the  local  ones,  with 
whom  he  is  in  constant  business  intercourse.  They,  too, 
profit  by  new  undertakings  ;  they,  therefore,  are  commonly 
urgent  in  pressing  them  forwards.  Acting  in  cooperation 
with  their  chief,  they  form  a  local  staff  of  great  influence. 
They  are  active  canvassers ;  they  stimulate  and  concen- 
trate the  feeling  of  their  districts  ;  they  encourage  rivalry 
with  other  lines ;  they  alarm  local  shareholders  with  ru- 
mours of  threatened  competition.    When  the  question  of 


MORALITY  OF  THE   EKGINEERS.  271 

extension  or  non-extension  comes  to  a  division,  they  col- 
lect proxies  for  the  extension  party.  They  bring  pressure 
to  bear  on  their  shareholding  clients  and  relatives.  Nay, 
so  deep  an  interest  do  they  feel  in  the  decision,  as  occa- 
sionally to  manufacture  votes  with  the  view  of  influencing 
it.  We  have  before  us  the  case  of  a  local  solicitor,  who, 
before  the  special  meeting  called  to  adopt  or  reject  a  con- 
templated branch,  transferred  portions  of  his  own  shares 
into  the  names  of  sundry  members  of  his  family,  and  so 
multiplied  his  seventeen  votes  into  forty-one ;  all  of  which 
he  recorded  for  the  adoption  of  his  new  scheme. 

The  morality  of  railway  engineers  is  not  greatly  above 
that  of  railway  lawyers.  The  gossip  of  Great  George 
Street  is  fertile  in  discreditable  revelations.  It  tells  how 
So-and-so,  like  others  before  him,  testified  to  estimates 
which  he  well  knew  were  insufficient.  It  makes  jocose 
allusion  to  this  man  as  being  employed  to  do  his  senior's 
*'  dirty  work" — his  hard-swearing ;  and  narrates  of  the 
other,  that  when  giving  evidence  before  committee,  he 
was  told  by  counsel  that  he  was  not  to  be  believed  even 
on  his  knees.  It  explains  how  cheaply  the  projector  of  a 
certain  line  executed  the  parliamentary  survey,  by  em- 
ploying on  it  part  of  the  staff  in  the  pay  of  another  com- 
pany to  which  he  was  engineer.  Now  it  alludes  to  the 
suspicion  attaching  to  a  certain  member  of  the  fraternity 
from  his  having  let  a  permanent-way  contract,  for  a  term 
of  years,  at  an  extravagant  sum  per  mile.  Again  it  ru- 
mours the  great  profits  which  some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
profession  made  in  1845,  by  charging  for  the  use  of  their 
names  at  so  much  the  prospectus  ;  even  up  to  a  thousand 
guineas.  And  then,  it  enlarges  upon  the  important  ad- 
vantages possessed  by  engineers  who  have  seats  in  the 
House  of  Commons. 

Thus  lax  as  is  the  ethical  code  of  engineers,  and  greatly 
as  they  are  interested  in  railway  enterprise,  it  is  to  be  ex- 


272  RAILWAY  MORALS   AND  EAILWAT  POLICY. 

pected  that  they  should  be  active  and  not  very  scrupu- 
lous promoters  of  it.  To  illustrate  the  vigour  and  skill 
with  which  they  further  new  undertakings,  a  few  facts 
may  be  cited.  Not  far  from  London,  and  lying  between 
two  lines  of  railway,  is  an  estate  that  has  been  purchased 
by  one  of  our  engineers.  He  has  since  obtained  Acts 
for  branches  to  both  of  the  adjacent  lines.  One  of  these 
branches  he  has  leased  to  the  company  whose  line  it  joins; 
and  he  has  tried  to  do  the  like  with  the  other,  but  as  yet 
without  success.  Even  as  it  is,  however,  he  is  considered 
to  have  doubled  the  value  of  his  property.  Again,  an 
engineer  of  celebrity  once  very  nearly  succeeded  in  smug- 
gling through  Parliament,  in  the  bill  for  a  proposed  rail- 
way, a  clause  extending  the  limits  of  deviation,  through  a 
certain  district,  to  several  miles  on  each  side  of  the  line — 
the  usual  limits  being  but  five  chains  on  each  side ;  and 
the  attempt  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact,  that  this  engi- 
neer possessed  mines  in  this  district.  To  press  forward 
extensions  by  the  companies  with  which  they  are  con- 
nected, they  occasionally  go  to  great  lengths.  Not  long 
since,  at  a  half-yearly  meeting,  certain  projects  which  the 
proprietary  had  already  once  rejected,  were  again  brought 
forward  by  two  engineers  who  attended  in  their  capacity 
of  shareholders.  Though  known  to  be  personally  inter- 
ested, one  of  them  moved  and  the  other  seconded,  that 
some  new  proposals  from  the  promoters  of  these  schemes 
be  considered  without  delay  by  the  directors.  The  mo- 
tion was  carried ;  the  directors  approved  the  proposals ; 
and  again,  the  proprietors  negatived  them.  A  third  time 
a  like  effort  was  made  ;  a  third  time  a  conflict  arose  ;  and 
within  a  few  days  of  the  special  meeting  at  which  the  di- 
vision was  to  take  place,  one  of  these  engineers  circulated 
among  the  shareholders  a  pamphlet  denying  the  allega- 
tions of  the  dissentient  party  and  making  counter-state- 
ments which  it  was  then  too  late  to  meet — nay,  he  did 


mFLrENOE  OF  THE  CONTEACTOKS.  273 

more ;  he  employed  agents  to  canvass  the  shareholders  for 
proxies  in  support  of  the  new  undertaking ;  and  was  obliged 
to  confess  as  much  when  charged  with  it  at  the  meeting. 

Turn  we  now  to  contractors.  Railway  enterprise  has 
given  to  this  class  of  men  a  gigantic  development,  not 
only  in  respect  of  numbers,  but  in  respect  of  the  vast 
wealth  to  which  some  of  them  have  attained.  Originally, 
half  a  dozen  miles  of  earthwork,  fencing,  and  bridges, 
was  as  much  as  any  single  contractor  undertook.  Of  late 
years,  however,  it  has  become  common  for  one  man  to  en- 
gage to  construct  an  entire  railway ;  and  deliver  it  over 
to  the  company  in  a  fit  condition  for  opening.  Great  cap- 
ital is  necessarily  required  for  this.  Great  profits  are 
made  by  it.  And  the  fortunes  accumulated  in  course  of 
time  have  been  such,  that  sundry  contractors  are  named 
as  being  each  able  to  make  a  railway  at  his  own  cost. 
But  they  are  as  insatiate  as  millionnaires  in  general ;  and 
so  long  as  they  continue  in  business  at  all,  are,  in  some 
sort,  forced  to  provide  new  undertakings  to  keep  their 
plant  employed.  As  may  be  imagined,  enormous  stocks 
of  working  materials  are  needed :  many  hundreds  of 
earth-wagons  and  of  horses;  many  miles  of  temporary 
rails  and  sleepers;  some  half-dozen  locomotive  engines, 
and  several  fixed  ones ;  innumerable  tools ;  besides  vast 
stores  of  timber,  bricks,  stone,  rails,  and  other  constitu- 
ents of  permanent  works,  that  have  been  bought  on  spCs- 
ulation.  To  keep  the  capital  thus  invested,  and  also  a 
large  staff  of  employh^  standing  idle,  entails  loss,  partly 
negative,  partly  positive.  The  great  contractor,  therefore, 
is  alike  under  a  pressing  stimulus  to  get  fresh  work,  and 
enabled  by  his  wealth  to  do  this.  Hence  the  not  un- 
frequent  inversion  of  the  old  arrangement  under  which 
companies  and  engineers  employed  contractors,  into  an 
arrangement  under  which  contractors  employ  engineers 
and  form  companies. 
12* 


274  BAILWAY  MOEALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

Many  recent  undertakings  have  been  thus  set  on  foot. 
The  most  gigantic  project  which  private  enterprise  has 
yet  dared — a  project  of  which,  unfortunately,  there  is  now 
no  hope — originated  with  a  distinguished  contracting  firm. 
In  some  cases,  as  in  this  chief  one,  this  mode  of  procedure 
may,  perhaps,  be  advantageous ;  but  in  a  far  greater  pro- 
portion of  cases  its  results  are  disastrous.  Interested  in 
promoting  railway  extensions,  even  in  a  greater  degree 
than  engineers  and  lawyers,  contractors  frequently  coop- 
erate with  these,  either  as  agents  or  as  coadjutors.  Lines 
are  fostered  into  being,  which  it  is  known  from  the  begin- 
ning, will  not  pay.  Of  late,  it  has  become  common  for 
landowners,  merchants,  and  others  personally  interested, 
who,  under  the  belief  that  their  indirect  gains  will  com- 
pensate for  their  meagre  dividends,  have  themselves  raised 
part  of  the  capital  for  a  local  railway,  but  cannot  raise 
the  rest — it  has  become  common  for  such  to  make  an 
agreement  with  a  wealthy  contractor  to  construct  the 
line,  taking  in  part  payment  a  portion  of  the  shares, 
amounting  to  perhaps  a  third  of  the  whole,  and  to  charge 
for  his  work  according  to  a  schedule  of  prices  to  be  there- 
after settled  between  himself  and  the  engineer.  By  this 
last  clause  the  contractor  renders  himself  secure.  It  would 
never  answer  his  purpose  to  take  part  payment  in  shares 
likely  to  return  some  £2  per  cent.,  unless  he  compensated 
himself  by  unusually  high  profits;  and  this  subsequent 
settlement  of  prices  with  one  whose  interests,  like  his 
own,  are  wrapped  up  in  the  prosecution  of  the  undertak- 
ing, ensures  him  high  profits.  Meanwhile,  the  facts  that 
all  the  capital  has  been  subscribed  and  the  line  contracted 
for,  unduly  raise  the  public  estimate  of  the  scheme ;  the 
shares  are  quoted  at  much  above  their  true  worth;  un- 
wary persons  buy ;  the  contractor  from  time  to  time  parts 
with  his  moiety  at  fair  prices ;  and  the  new  shareholders 
ultimately  find  themselves  part  owners  of  a  railway  which. 


DISHONEST  SCHEMES  OF  CONTRACTORS.  275 

unprofitable  as  it  originally  promised  to  be,  had  been 
made  yet  more  unprofitable  by  expensiveness  of  construc- 
tion. 

Nor  are  these  the  only  cases  in  which  contractors  gain 
after  this  fashion.  They  do  the  like  with  undertakings  of 
their  own  projection.  To  obtain  Acts  for  these,  they  sign 
the  subscription-contracts  for  large  amounts ;  knowing  that 
in  the  way  above  described,  they  can  always  make  it  an- 
swer to  do  this.  So  general  had  the  practice  latterly  be- 
come, as  to  attract  the  attention  of  committees.  As  was 
remarked  by  a  personage  noted  for  his  complicity  in  these 
transactions — "  Committees  are  getting  too  knowing ;  they 
won't  stand  that  dodge  now."  Nevertheless,  the  thing  is 
still  done  under  a  disguised  form.  Though  contractors  no 
longer  enter  their  own  names  on  subscription  lists  for 
thousands  of  shares;  yet  they  effect  the  same  end  by 
making  nominal  holders  of  their  foremen  and  others: 
themselves  being  the  real  ones. 

Of  directorial  misdoings  some  samples  have  already 
been  referred  to;  and  more  might  be  added.  Besides 
those  arising  from  directly  personal  aims,  there  are  sundry 
others.  One  of  these  is  the  still-increasing  community 
between  railway  boards  and  the  House  of  Commons. 
There  are  eighty-one  directors  sitting  in  Parliament ;  and 
though  many  of  these  take  little  or  no  part  in  the  affairs 
of  their  respective  railways,  many  of  them  are  the  most 
active  members  of  the  boards  to  which  they  belong.  We 
have  but  to  look  back  a  few  years,  and  mark  the  unanim- 
ity with  which  companies  adopted  the  policy  of  getting 
themselves  represented  in  the  Legislature,  to  see  that  the 
furtherance  of  their  respective  interests — especially  in  cases 
of  competition — was  the  incentive.  How  well  this  policy 
is  understood  among  the  initiated,  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact,  that  gentlemen  are  now  in  some  cases  elected  on 
boards,  simply  because  they  are  members  of  Parliament. 


276  RAILWAY  MORALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

Of  course  this  implies  that  railway  legislation  is  affected 
Iby  a  complicated  play  of  private  influences;  and  that 
these  influences  generally  work  towards  the  facilitation  of 
new  enterprises,  is  tolerably  obvious.  It  naturally  hap 
pens  that  directors  whose  companies  are  not  opposed,  ex- 
change good  offices.  It  naturally  happens  that  they  can 
more  or  less  smooth  the  way  of  their  annual  batch  of  new 
bills  through  committees. 

Moreover,  directors  sitting  in  the  House  of  Commons 
not  only  facilitate  the  passing  of  the  schemes  in  which 
they  are  interested,  but  are  solicited  to  undertake  further 
schemes  by  those  around  them.  It  is  a  very  common- 
sense  conclusion  that  representatives  of  small  towns  and 
country  districts  needing  railway  accommodation,  who  are 
daily  thrown  in  contact  with  the  chairman  of  a  company 
capable  of  giving  this  accommodation,  will  not  neglect 
the  opportunity  of  furthering  their  ends.  It  is  a  very 
common-sense  conclusion  that  by  hospitalities,  by  favours, 
by  flattery,  by  the  many  means  used  to  bias  men,  they 
will  seek  to  obtain  his  assistance.  And  it  is  an  equally 
common-sense  conclusion  that  in  many  cases  they  will 
succeed — ^that  by  some  complication  of  persuasions  and 
temptations  they  will  swerve  him  from  his  calmer  judg- 
ment ;  and  so  introduce  into  the  company  he  represents, 
influences  at  variance  with  its  welfare. 

Under  some  motives,  however — whether  those  of  direct 
self-interest,  of  private  favour,  or  of  antagonistic  feeling, 
need  not  here  be  discussed — ^it  is  certain  that  directors  are 
constantly  committing  their  constituents  to  unwise  enter- 
prises ;  and  that  they  frequently  employ  unjustifiable  means 
for  either  eluding  or  overcoming  their  opposition.  Share- 
holders occasionally  find  that  their  directors  have  given  to 
Parliament  pledges  of  extension  much  exceeding  what 
they  were  authorized  to  give ;  and  they  are  then  persuaded 
that  they  are  bound  to  endorse  the  promises  made  for 


HOW  SHAREHOLDERS  ARE  IMPOSED  UPON.     277 

them  by  their  agents.  In  some  cases,  among  the  mislead- 
ing statements  laid  before  shareholders  to  obtain  their 
consent  to  a  new  project,  will  be  found  an  abstract  of  the 
earnings  of  a  previously-executed  branch  or  feeder  to 
which  the  proposed  one  bears  some  analogy.  These  earn- 
ings are  shown  (not  always  without  "  cooking  ")  to  be  tol- 
erably good  and  improving ;  and  it  is  argued  that  the  new 
project,  having  like  prospects,  offers  a  fair  investment. 
Meanwhile,  it  is  not  stated  that  the  capital  for  this  pre- 
viously-executed branch  or  feeder  was  raised  on  debentures 
or  by  guaranteed  shares  at  a  higher  rate  of  interest  than 
the  dividend  pays ;  it  is  not  stated  that  as  the  capital  for 
this  further  undertaking  will  be  raised  on  like  terms,  the 
annual  interest  on  debt  will  swallow  up  more  than  the 
annual  revenue:  and  thus  unsuspecting  shareholders — 
some  unacquainted  with  the  company's  antecedents,  some 
unable  to  understand  its  complicated  accounts — give  their 
proxies,  or  raise  their  hands,  for  new  works  which  will  tell 
with,  disastrous  effect  on  their  future  dividends.  In  pursuit 
of  their  ends,  directors  will  from  time  to  time  go  directly 
in  the  teeth  of  established  regulations.  Where  it  has  been 
made  a  rule  that  proxies  shall  be  issued  only  by  order  of  a 
meeting  of  the  proprietors,  they  will  yet  issue  them  with- 
out any  such  order,  when  by  so  doing  they  can  steal  a 
march  on  dissentients.  If  it  suits  their  purpose,  they  will 
occasionally  bring  forward  most  important  measures  with- 
out due  notice.  In  stating  the  amount  of  the  company's 
stock  which  has  voted  with  them  on  a  division,  they  have 
been  known  to  include  thousands  of  shares  on  which  a 
small  sum  only  was  paid  up,  counting  them  as  though 
fully  paid  up. 

To  complete  the  sketch,  something  must  be  said  on  the 
management  of  board  meetings  and  meetings  of  share- 
holders. For  the  first — their  decisions  are  affected  by  va- 
rious manoeuvres.     Of  course,  on  fit  occasions,  there  is  a 


278  RAILWAY  MORALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

whipping-up  of  those  favourable  to  any  project  which  it 
is  desired  to  carry.  Were  this  all,  there  would  be  little 
to  complain  of;  but  something  more  than  this  is  done. 
There  are  boards  in  which  it  is  the  practice  to  defeat  op- 
position by  stratagem.  The  extension  party  having  sum- 
moned their  forces  for  the  occasion,  and  having  entered  on 
the  minutes  of  business  a  notice  worded  with  the  requisite 
vagueness,  shape  their  proceedings  according  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  meeting.  Should  their  antagonists  muster 
more  strongly  than  was  expected,  this  vaguely-worded 
notice  serves  simply  to  introduce  some  general  statement 
or  further  information  concerning  the  project  named  in  it ; 
and  the  matter  is  passed  over  as  though  nothing  more  had 
been  meant.  On  the  contrary,  should  the  proportion  of 
the  two  sides  be  more  fiivourable,  the  notice  becomes  the 
basis  of  a  definite  motion  committing  the  board  to  some 
important  procedure.  If  due  precautions  have  been  taken, 
the  motion  is  passed ;  and  once  passed,  those  who,  if  pres- 
ent, would  have  resisted  it,  have  no  remedy;  for  in  rail- 
way government  there  is  no  "  second  reading,"  much  less 
a  third.  So  determined  and  so  unscrupulous  are  the  ef- 
forts sometimes  made  by  the  stronger  party  to  overcome 
and  silence  their  antagonists,  that  when  a  contested  meas- 
ure, carried  by  them  at  the  board,  has  to  go  before  a  gen- 
eral meeting  for  confirmation,  they  have  even  been  known 
to  pass  a  resolution  that  their  dissentient  colleagues  shall 
not  address  the  proprietary ! 

How,  at  half-yearly  and  special  meetings,  shareholders 
should  be  so  readily  led  by  boards,  even  after  repeated  ex- 
perience of  their  untrustworthiness,  seems  at  first  sight  dif- 
ficult to  understand.  The  mystery  disappears,  however,  on 
inquiry.  Very  frequently,  contested  measures  are  carried 
quite  against  the  sense  of  the  meetings  before  which  they 
are  laid,  by  means  of  the  large  number  of  proxies  pre- 
viously collected  by  the  directors.      These   proxies   are 


FEEBLE  INFLIJENCE  OF   SHAREHOLDERS.  279 

obtained  mostly  from  proprietors  scattered  everywhere 
throughout  the  kingdom,  who  are  very  generally  weak 
enough  to  sign  the  first  document  sent  to  them.  Then,  of 
those  present  when  the  question  is  brought  to  an  issue, 
not  many  dare  attempt  a  speech ;  of  those  who  dare,  but 
few  are  clear-headed  enough  to  see  the  full  bearings  of  the 
measure  they  are  about  to  vote  upon ;  and  such  as  can  see 
them  are  often  prevented  by  nervousness  from  doing  jus- 
tice to  the  views  they  hold. 

Moreover,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  party  dis- 
playing antagonism .  to  the  board  are  apt  to  be  regarded 
by  their  brother  proprietors  with  more  or  less  reprobation. 
Unless  the  misconduct  of  the  governing  body  has  been  very 
glaring  and  very  recent,  there  ever  arises  in  the  mass  a  prej- 
udice against  all  playing  the  part  of  an  opposition.  They 
are  condemned  as  noisy,  and  factious,  and  obstructive; 
and  often  only  by  determined  courage  avoid  being  put 
down.  Besides  these  negative  reasons  for  the  general  in- 
eflSciency  of  shareholders'  resistance,  there  are  sundry  pos- 
itive ones.  As  writes  a  Member  of  Parliament  who  has 
been  an  extensive  holder  of  stock  in  many  companies  from 
the  first  days  of  railway  enterprise  : — "  My  large  and  long 
acquaintance  Avith  Railway  Companies'  afiairs,  enables  me 
to  say,  that  a  large  majority  of  shareholders  trust  wholly 
to  their  directors,  having  little  or  no  information,  nor  car- 
ing to  have  any  opinion  of  their  own.  .  .  .  Some  others, 
better  informed  but  timid,  are  afraid,  by  opposing  the 
directors,  of  causing  a  depreciation  of  the  value  of  their 
stock  in  the  market,  and  are  more  alarmed  at  the  prospect 
of  this  temporary  depreciation  than  at  the  permanent  loss 
entailed  on  the  company  by  the  useless,  and  therefore  un- 
profitable, outlay  of  additional  capital.  .  .  .  Others  again, 
believing  that  the  impending  permanent  evil  is  inevitable, 
resolve  on  the  spot  to  sell  out  immediately,  and  to  keep 
up  the  prices  of  their  shares,  also  give  their  support  to  the 
directors." 


280  EAILWAY  MOEALS   AND  BAILWAY   POLICY. 

Thus,  from  lack  of  organization  and  efficiency  among 
those  who  express  their  opposition,  and  from  the  timidity 
and  double-facedness  of  those  who  do  not,  it  happens  that 
extremely  unwise  projects  are  carried  by  large  majorities. 
Nor  is  this  all.  The  tactics  of  the  aggressive  party  are 
commonly  as  skilful  as  those  of  their  antagonists  are 
bungling.  In  the  first  place,  the  chairman,  wbo  is  very 
generally  the  chief  promoter  of  the  contested  scheme,  has 
it  in  his  power  to  favour  those  who  take  his  own  side,  and 
to  throw  difficulties  in  the  way  of  opponents  ;  and  this  he 
not  unfrequently  does  to  a  great  extent — ^refusing  to  hear, 
putting  down  on  some  plea  of  breach  of  order,  brow- 
beating, even  using  threats.*  It  generally  turns  out  too, 
that,  whether  intentionally  or  not,  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant motions  are  postponed  until  nearly  the  close  of 
the  meeting,  when  the  greater  portion  of  the  shareholders 
are  gone.  Large  money-votes,  extensive  powers,  unlim- 
ited permits  to  directors  to  take,  in  certain  matters,  "  such 
steps  as  in  their  judgment  they  may  deem  most  expedi- 
ent,"— these,  and  the  like,  are  left  to  be  hurried  over  dur- 
ing the  last  half-hour,  when  the  tired  and  impatient  rem- 
nant will  no  longer  listen  to  objectors ;  and  when  those 
who  have  personal  ends  to  serve  by  outstaying  the  rest, 
carry  everything  their  own  way.  Indeed,  in  some  in- 
stances, the  arrangements  are  such  as  almost  to  ensure  the 
meeting  becoming  a  pro-extension  one  towards  the  end. 

This  result  is  brought  about  thus  : — A  certain  portion 

*  We  may  remark  in  passing,  that  the  practice  of  making  the  chairman 
of  the  board  also  chairman  of  the  half-yearly  meetings,  is  a  very  injudi- 
cious one.  The  directors  are  the  servants  of  the  proprietary ;  and  meet 
them  from  time  to  time  to  render  an  accoimt  of  their  stewardship.  That 
the  chief  of  these  servants,  whose  proceedings  are  about  to  be  examined, 
should  himself  act  as  chief  of  the  jury,  is  absurd.  Obviously,  the  business 
of  each  meeting  should  be  conducted  by  some  one  independently  chosen  for 
the  purpose ;  as  the  Speaker  is  chosen  by  the  House  of  Commons. 


MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  MEETINGS.  281 

of  the  general  body  of  proprietors  are  also  proprietors  of 
some  subordinate  work — some  branch  line,  or  steamboats, 
or  canal,  which  the  Company  has  purchased  or  leased ; 
and  as  holders  of  guaranteed  stock,  probably  having  capi- 
tal to  take  up  further  such  stock  if  they  can  get  it,  they 
are  naturally  favourable  to  projects  that  are  to  be  executed 
on  the  preference-share  system.  These  hold  their  meeting 
for  the  declaration  of  dividend,  &c.,  as  soon  as  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Company  at  large  has  been  dissolved ;  and  in 
the  same  room.  Hence  it  happens,  that  being  kept  to- 
gether by  the  prospect  of  subsequent  business,  they  grad- 
ually, towards  the  close  of  the  general  meeting,  come  to 
form  the  majority  of  those  present ;  and  the  few  ordinary 
shareholders  who  have  been  patient  enough  to  stay,  are 
outvoted  by  those  having  interests  quite  distinct  from 
their  own — quite  at  variance  with  the  welfare  of  the  Com- 
pany. 

And  here  this  allusion  to  the  preference-share  system, 
introduces  us  to  a  fact  which  may  fitly  close  this  detail  of 
private  interests  and  questionable  practices — a  fact  serving 
at  once  to  illustrate  the  subtlety  and  concert  of  railway 
officialism,  and  the  power  it  can  exert.  That  this  fact 
may  be  fully  appreciated,  it  must  be  premised,  that  though 
preference-shares  do  not  usually  carry  votes,  they  are  some- 
times specially  endowed  with  them ;  and  further,  that 
they  occasionally  remain  unpaid  up  until  the  expiration 
of  a  time  after  which  no  further  calls  can  be  legally  made. 
In  the  case  in  question,  a  large  number  of  £50  preference- 
shares  had  thus  long  stood  with  but  £5  paid.  Those  de- 
sirous of  promoting  extensions,  &c.,  had  here  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  great  power  in  the  Company  at  small 
cost ;  and  as  we  shall  see,  they  duly  availed  themselves 
of  it.  Already  had  their  party  twice  tried  to  thrust  the 
proprietary  into  a  new  undertaking  of  great  magnitude. 
Twice  had  they  entailed  on  them  an  expensive  and  harass- 


282  RAILWAY  MORALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

ing  contest.  A  third  time,  notwithstanding  a  professed 
relinquishment  of  it,  they  brought  forward  substantially 
the  same  scheme,  and  were  defeated  only  by  a  small  ma- 
jority. The  following  extracts  from  the  division  lists  we 
take  from  the  statement  of  one  of  the  scrutineers : 


50;.Pre- 
fereoM 
Share* 
withSA 
paidu^ 

Recorded 

Additional  Stock  or  Shares,    Stoclc  at 

the  Poll 

as  held. 

Total  ac- 
tual Capi- 
tal paid 
up. 

Number 
of  votes 
scored  for 
theEz- 
tenslou. 

The  Company's  solicitor. . . 
Ditto  in  joint  account  with 

eoo 

778 

60 

160 

1,854 

200 
126 

7 

847 

1,003 

85 
860 
217 

17 

f  rsmi.  Stock,  and  1 
100  50/.  shares, 
with  42/.  10«. 

.     paid  up. 

None. 

None. 

None. 

4,266/.  stock- 

1,000/.  stock. 
200/.  stock. 

None. 

52,833/. 

883/.  stock. 

10,000/.  stock. 
1,250/.  stock, 
14,916/.  stock;  119  50/. 
shares,  with  42/.  10«. 
paid  up:  and  13  40/. 
shares,     with     84/. 
paid  up. 

633/.  stock. 

£ 

75,650 

3,000 

7,500 

71,966 

11,000 
6,450 

350 

70,183 

50,483 

11,750 
19,250 
32,230 

1,683 

82,666 
2,500 

1,000 

£ 

18,140 

800 

750 
11,036 

2,000 

825 

85 

54,568 

5,348 

10,175 
8,050 
20,416 

918 

82,866 
2,500 

850 

188 

20 

33 

101 

To 

7 

168 

118 

41 
56 

82 

14 

90 

18 

12 

The  solicitor's  partner 

The  Company's  engineer. . . 

The  engineer's  partner. 

One  of  the  Company's  par- 
liamentary counsel 

Another  ditto,  ditto 

Local  solicitor  for  the  pro- 

The  Company's  contractor 

for  permanent- way 

The  Company's  conveyan- 

The  Company's   furniture 
printer       

The  Company's  surveyor.. 
The  Company's  architect. . 

One  of  the  Company's  car- 
riers     

The  Company's  bankers  :— 

One  partner 

Another  partner 

Ditto   in    joint   account 
with  another. 

To  this  list,  some  seven  or  eight  of  the  Company's 
tradesmen,  similarly  armed,  might  be  added ;  raising  the 
number  of  the  almost  factitious  shares  held  by  functiona- 
ries to  about  5,200,  and  increasing  the  votes  commanded 
by  them,  from  its  present  total  of  1,068  to  upwards  of 
1,100.     If  now  we  separate  the  £380,000,  which  these 


CHAEACTER  OF  SHAEEHOLDERS.         283 

gentlemen  bring  to  bear  against  their  brother  sharehold- 
ers, into  real  and  nominal,  we  find  that  while  not  quite 
£120,000  of  it  is  hond  fide  property  invested,  the  remain- 
ing £260,000  is  nine  parts  shadow  and  one  part  substance. 
And  thus  it  results,  that  by  virtue  of  certain  stock  actually 
representing  but  £26,000,  these  lawyers,  engineers,  coun- 
sel, conveyancers,  contractors,  bankers,  and  others  inter- 
ested in  the  promotion  of  new  schemes,  outweigh  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  the  real  capital  held  by 
8harehol(^ers  whom  these  schemes  will  injure  ! 

Need  we  any  longer  wonder,  then,  at  the  persistence 
of  Railway  Companies  in  seemingly  reckless  competition 
and  ruinous  extensions  ?  Is  not  this  obstinate  continu- 
ance of  a  policy  that  has  year  after  year  proved  disas- 
trous, sufficiently  explicable  on  contemplating  the  many 
illegitimate  influences  at  work  ?  Is  it  not  manifest  that 
the  small  organized  party  always  outmanoeuvres  the  large 
unorganized  one  ?  Consider  their  respective  characters 
and  circumstances.  Here  are  the  shareholders  difiused 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  in  towns  and  country 
houses ;  knowing  nothing  of  each  other,  and  too  remote 
to  cooperate  were  they  acquainted.  Very  few  of  them  see 
a  railway  journal;  not  many  a  daily  one;  and  scarcely 
any  know  much  of  railway  politics.  Necessarily  a  fluc- 
tuating body,  only  a  small  number  are  familiar  with  the 
Company's  history — its  acts,  engagements,  policy,  man- 
agement. A  great  proportion  are  incompetent  to  judge 
of  the  questions  that  come  before  them,  and  lack  decision 
to  act  out  such  judgments  as  they  may  form — executors 
who  do  not  like  to  take  steps  involving  much  responsibil- 
ity ;  trustees  fearful  of  interfering  with  the  property  un- 
der their  care,  lest  possible  loss  should  entail  a  lawsuit ; 
widows  who  have  never  in  their  lives  acted  for  themselves 
in  any  afiair  of  moment  •  maiden  ladies,  alike  nervous  and 


284  RAILWAY  MOEALS  AND  RAILWAY   POLICY. 

innocent  of  all  business  knowledge;  clergymen  whose 
daily  discipline  has  been  little  calculated  to  make  them 
acute  men  of  the  world ;  retired  tradesmen  whose  retail 
transactions  have  given  them  small  ability  for  grasping 
large  considerations ;  servants  possessed  of  accumulated 
savings  and  cramped  notions  ;  with  sundry  others  of  like 
helpless  character — all  of  them  rendered  more  or  less  con- 
servative by  ignorance  or  timidity,  and  proportionately 
inclined  to  support  those  in  authority.  To  these  should 
be  added  the  class  of  temporary  shareholders,  who,  having 
bought  stock  on  speculation,  and  knowing  that  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  Company  is  likely  to  depress  prices  for  a  time, 
have  an  interest  in  supporting  the  board  irrespective  of 
the  goodness  of  its  policy. 

Turn  now  to  those  whose  efforts  are  directed  to  rail- 
way expansion.  Consider  the  constant  pressure  of  local 
interests — of  small  towns,  of  rural  districts,  of  landown- 
ers :  all  of  them  eager  for  branch  accommodation ;  all  of 
them  with  great  and  definite  advantages  in  view ;  few  of 
them  conscious  of  the  loss  those  advantages  may  entail  on 
others.  Remember  the  influence  of  legislators,  prompted, 
some  by  their  constituents,  some  by  personal  aims,  and 
encouraged  by  the  belief  that  additional  railway  facilities 
are  in  every  case  nationally  beneficial ;  and  then  calculate 
the  extent  to  which,  as  stated  to  Mr.  Cardwell's  commit- 
tee. Parliament  has  "  excited  and  urged  forward"  Compa- 
nies into  rivalry.  Observe  the  temptations  under  which 
lawyers  are  placed — ^the  vast  profits  accruing  to  them  from 
every  railway  contest,  whether  ending  in  success  or  fail- 
ure ;  and  then  imagine  the  magnitude  and  subtlety  of 
their  extension  manoeuvring.  Conceive  the  urgency  of  the 
engineering  profession ;  to  the  richer  of  whom  more  rail- 
way-making means  more  wealth ;  to  the  mass  of  whom 
more  railway-making  means  daily  bread.  Estimate  the 
capitalist-power  of  contractors ;  whose  unemployed  plant 


PRESSXJRE  OF   CLASS-INTERESTS.  285 

brings  heavy  loss ;  whose  plant  when  employed  brings 
great  gain.  Then  recollect  that  to  lawyers,  engineers, 
and  contractors  the  getting  up  and  executing  of  new  un- 
dertakings is  a  business — a  business  to  which  every  en- 
ergy is  directed ;  in  which  long  years  of  practice  have 
given  great  skill ;  and  to  the  facilitation  of  which,  all 
means  tolerated  by  men  of  the  world  are  thought  justifi- 
able. 

Finally,  consider  that  the  classes  interested  in  carrying 
out  new  schemes,  are  in  constant  communication,  and  have 
every  facility  for  combined  action.  A  great  part  of  them 
live  in  London,  and  most  of  these  have  offices  at  West- 
minster— in  Great  George  Street,  in  Parliament  Street, 
clustering  round  the  Legislature.  Not  only  are  they  thus 
concentrated — not  only  are  they  throughout  the  year  in 
frequent  business  intercourse ;  but  during  the  session  they 
are  daily  together,  in  Palace- Yard  Hotels,  in  the  lobbies, 
in  the  committee-rooms,  in  the  House  of  Commons  itself. 
Is  it  any  wonder  then,  that  the  wide-spread,  ill-informed, 
unorganized  body  of  shareholders,  standing  severally 
alone,  and  each  preoccupied  with  his  daily  affiiirs,  should 
be  continually  outgeneralled  by  the  comparatively  small 
but  active,  skilful,  combined  body  opposed  to  them,  whose 
very  occupation  is  at  stake  in  gaining  the  victory  ? 

"  But  how  about  the  directors  ? "  it  will  perhaps  be 
asked.  "  How  can  they  be  parties  to  these  obviously  un- 
wise undertakings  ?  They  are  themselves  shareholders : 
they  gain  by  what  benefits  the  proprietary  at  large ;  they 
lose  by  what  injures  it.  And  if  without  their  consent,  or 
rather  their  agency,  no  new  scheme  can  be  adopted  by  the 
Company,  the  classes  interested  in  fostering  railway  enter- 
prise are  powerless  to  do  harm." 

This  belief  in  the  identity  of  directorial  and  proprie- 
tary interests,  is  the  fatal  error  commonly  made  by  share- 
holders.    It  is  this  which,  in  spite  of  many  bitter  expe- 


286  EAILWAY  MORALS  AKD  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

riences,  leads  them  to  be  so  careless  and  so  trustful. 
"  Their  profit  is  our  profit ;  their  loss  is  our  loss ;  they 
know  more  than  we  do  ;  therefore  let  us  leare  the  matter 
to  them."  Such  is  the  argument  which  more  or  less  defi- 
nitely passes  through  the  shareholding  mind — an  argu- 
ment of  which  the  premises  are  vicious,  and  the  inference 
disastrous.     Let  us  consider  it  in  detail. 

Not  to  dweN  upon  the  disclosures  that  have  in  years 
past  been  made  respecting  the  share-trafficking  of  boards, 
and  the  large  profits  realized  by  it — disclosures  which 
alone  suffice  to  disprove  the  assumed  identity  between  the 
interests  of  directors  and  proprietary — and  taking  for 
granted  that  little,  if  any,  of  this  now  takes  place ;  let  us 
go  on  to  notice  the  still-prevailing  influences  which  render 
this  apparent  unity  of  purpose  illusive.  The  immediate 
interest  which  directors  have  in  the  prosperity  of  the  Com- 
pany, is  often  much  less  than  is  supposed.  Occasionally 
they  possess  only  the  bare  qualification  of  £1,000  worth 
of  stock.  In  some  instances  even  this  is  partly  nominal. 
Admitting,  however,  as  we  do  frankly,  that  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  the  full  qualification,  and  much  more 
than  the  qualification,  is  held ;  yet  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  indirect  advantages  which  a  wealthy  mem- 
ber of  a  board  may  gain  from  the  prosecution  of  a  new 
undertaking,  will  often  far  outweigh  the  direct  injury  it 
will  inflict  on  him  by  the  depreciation  of  his  shares.  A 
board  usually  consists,  to  a  considerable  extent,  of  gentle- 
men residing  at  different  points  throughout  the  tract  of 
country  traversed  by  the  railway  they  control  :*  some  of 
them  landowners ;  some  merchants  or  manufacturers ; 
some  owners  of  mines  or  shipping.  Almost  always  these 
are  advantaged  more  or  less  by  a  new  branch  or  feeder. 
Those  in  close  proximity  to  it,  gain  either  by  enhanced 
value  of  their  lands,  or  by  increased  facilities  of  transit 
for  their  commodities.     Those  at  more  remote  parts  of  the 


DIEECTOES  NOT  TO  BE  DEPENDED  UPON.  287 

main  line,  though  less  dii-ectly  interested,  are  still  fre- 
quently interested  in  some  degree :  for  every  extension 
opens  up  new  markets  either  for  produce  or  raw  mate- 
rials ;  and  if  it  is  one  effecting  a  junction  with  some  other 
system  of  railways,  the  greater  mercantile  conveniences 
afforded  to  directors  thus  circumstanced,  become  import- 
ant. 

Obviously,  therefore,  the  indirect  profits  accruing  to 
such  from  one  of  these  new  undertakings,  may  more  than 
counterbalance  the  direct  loss  upon  their  railway  invest- 
ments ;  and  though  there  are,  doubtless,  men  far  to  hon- 
ourable to  let  such  considerations  sway  them,  yet  the  gen- 
erality can  scarcely  fail  to  be  affected  by  temptations  so 
strong.  Then  we  have  further  to  remember  the  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  directors  having  seats  in  Parliament. 
Already  these  have  been  noticed ;  and  we  recur  to  them 
only  for  the  pui*pose  of  pointing  out  that  the  immediate 
evil  of  an  increased  discount  on  his  £1,000  worth  of  stock, 
may  be  to  a  director  of  much  less  consequence  than  the 
favours,  patronage,  connections,  position,  which  his  aid 
in  carrying  a  new  scheme  will  bring  him — a  consideration 
which,  without  saying  how  far  it  applies,  suffices  to 
show  that  in  this  respect,  also,  the  supposed  identity  of 
interests  between  directors  and  shareholders  does  not  hold. 

Moreover,  the  disunion  of  interests  produced  by  these 
influences  is  increased  by  the  system  of  preference-stock. 
Were  there  no  other  cause  in  action,  this  practice  of  rais- 
ing capital  for  supplementaiy  undertakings,  by  issuing 
shares  bearing  a  guaranteed  interest  of  5,  6,  and  V  per 
cent.,  would  alone  destroy  that  community  of  motives 
supposed  to  exist  between  a  railway  proprietary  and  its 
executive.  Little  as  the  fact  is  at  present  recognized,  it  is 
yet  readily  demonstrable  that  by  raising  one  of  these 
mortgages,  a  Company  is  forthwith  divided  into  two 
classes  :  the  one  consisting  of  the  richer  shareholders,  in- 


288  BAILWAY  MOEALS   AND  BAELWAT  POLICY. 

elusive  of  the  directors,  and  the  other  of  the  poorer  share- 
holders ;  of  which  classes  the  richer  one  can  protect  itself 
from  the  losses  which  the  poorer  one  has  to  bear — nay, 
can  even  profit  by  the  losses  of  the  poorer  one.  This  as- 
sertion, startling  as  it  will  be  to  many,  we  will  proceed  to 
prove. 

When  the  capital  required  for  a  branch  or  extension  is 
raised  by  means  of  guaranteed  shares,  it  is  the  custom  to 
give  each  proprietor  the  option  of  taking  up  a  number  of 
such  shares  proportionate  to  the  number  of  liis  original 
shares.  By  availing  himself  of  this  offer,  he  more  or  less 
effectually  protects  himself  against  any  possible  loss  which 
the  new  undertaking  may  entail.  Should  this,  not  fulfill- 
ing the  promises  of  its  advocates,  diminish  in  some  degree 
the  general  dividend;  yet,  a  high  dividend  on  the  due 
proportion  of  preference-stock,  may  nearly  or  quite  com- 
pensate for  this.  Hence,  it  becomes  the  policy  of  all  who 
can  do  so,  to  take  up  as  many  guaranteed  shares  as  they 
can  get.  But  what  happens  when  the  circular  announcing 
this  apportionment  of  guaranteed  shares  is  sent  round  to 
the  proprietary  ?  Those  who  possess  much  stock,  being 
generally  capitalists,  forthwith  apply  for  as  many  as  they 
are  entitled  to.  On  the  other  hand,  the  smaller  holders, 
constituting  as  they  do  the  bulk  of  the  Company,  having 
no  available  funds  with  which  to  pay  the  calls  on  new 
shares,  are  obliged  to  decline  them.  What  results  ? 
When  this  additional  line  has  been  opened,  and  it  turns 
out,  as  usual,  that  its  revenue  is  insufficient  to  meet  the 
guaranteed  dividend  on  its  shares — when  the  general  in- 
come of  the  Company  is  laid  under  contribution  to  make 
up  this  guaranteed  dividend — when  as  a  consequence,  the 
dividend  on  the  original  stock  is  diminished ;  then  the 
poorer  shareholders  who  possess  original  stock  only,  find 
themselves  losers  ;  while  the  richer  ones,  possessing  guar- 
anteed shares  in  addition,  find  that  their  gain  on  prefer- 


DISADVANTAGES   OF   SMALL   SHAKEHOLDEBS.  289 

ence-dividends  nearly  or  quite  counterbalances  their  loss  on 
general  dividends. 

Indeed,  as  above  hinted,  the  case  is  even  worse.  For 
as  the  large  share-proprietor  who  has  obtained  his  propor- 
tion of  guaranteed  stock,  is  not  obliged  to  retain  his  orig- 
inal stock — as,  if  he  doubts  the  paying  character  of  the 
new  undertaking,  he  can  always  sell  such  part  of  his 
shares  as  will  suffer  from  it ;  it  is  obvious  that  he  may,  if 
he  pleases,  become  the  possessor  of  preference-shares  only; 
and  may  so  obtain  a  handsome  return  for  his  money  at  the 
expense  of  the  Company  at  large  and  the  small  sharehold- 
ers in  particular.  How  far  this  policy  is  pursued  we  do 
not  pretend  to  say.  All  which  it  here  concerns  us  to  no- 
tice, is,  that  directors  being  mostly  men  of  large  means, 
and  being  therefore  able  to  avail  themselves  of  this  guar- 
anteed stock,  by  which  at  least  much  loss  may  be  warded 
off  if  not  profit  made,  are  liable  to  be  swayed  by  motives 
different  from  those  of  the  general  proprietary.  And  that 
they  often  are  so  swayed  there  cannot  be  a  doubt.  With- 
out assuming  any  of  them  to  be  guilty  of  so  flagitious  an 
intention  as  that  of  benefiting  at  the  cost  of  their  co-pro- 
prietors ;  and  believing,  as  we  do,  that  few  of  them  duly 
realize  the  fact  that  the  protection  they  will  have,  is  a 
protection  not  available  to  the  mass  of  the  shareholders  ; 
we  think  it  is  a  rational  deduction  from  common  expe- 
rience, that  this  prospect  of  compensation  will  often  turn 
the  scale  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  hesitating,  and 
diminish  the  opposition  on  the  part  of  those  who  disap- 
prove. 

Thus,  the  belief  which  leads  the  majority  of  railway 
shareholders  to  place  implicit  faith  in  their  directors,  is  an 
erroneous  one.  It  is  not  true  that  there  is  an  identity  of 
interest  between  the  proprietary  and  its  executive.  It  is 
not  true  that  the  board  forms  an  efficient  guard  against 
the  intrigues  of  lawyers,  engineers,  contractors,  and  others 
13 


290  RAILWAY  MORALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

who  profit  by  railway-making.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  true 
that  its  members  are  not  only  liable  to  be  drawn  from 
their  line  of  duty  by  various  indirect  motives,  but  that  by 
the  system  of  guaranteed  shares  they  are  placed  under  a 
positive  temptation  to  betray  their  constituents. 

And  now  what  is  the  proximate  origin  of  all  these  cor- 
ruptions ?  and  what  is  the  remedy  for  them  ?  What  gen- 
eral error  in  railway  legislation  is  it  that  has  made  possi- 
ble such  complicated  chicaneries?  Whence  arises  this 
facility  with  which  interested  persons  continually  thrust 
companies  into  unwise  enterprises  ?  We  believe  there  is 
a  very  simple  answer  to  these  questions.  It  is  an  answer, 
however,  which  will  at  first  sight  be  thought  quite  irrele- 
vant :  and  we  doubt  not  that  the  corollary  we  propose 
drawing  from  it,  will  be  forthwith  condemned  by  practi- 
cal men  as  incapable  of  being  acted  on.  Nevertheless,  if 
such  will  give  us  a  little  time  to  explain,  we  are  not  with- 
out hope  of  showing,  both  that  the  evils  laboured  under 
would  be  excluded  were  this  principle  recognized,  and  that 
the  recognition  of  it  is  not  only  feasible,  but  would  even 
open  the  way  out  of  sundry  perplexities  in  which  railway 
legislation  is  at  present  involved. 

We  conceive,  then,  that  the  fundamental  vice  of  our 
system,  as  hitherto  carried  out,  lies  in  the  misinterpreta- 
tion of  the  proprietary  contract — the  contract  tacitly  en- 
tered into  between  each  shareholder  and  the  body  of 
shareholders  with  whom  he  unites ;  and  that  the  remedy 
desired  lies  simply  in  the  enforcement  of  an  equitable  in- 
terpretation of  this  contract.  In  reality  it  is  a  strictly 
limited  one  :  in  practice  it  is  treated  as  altogether  unlim- 
ited :  and  the  thing  needed  is,  that  it  should  be  clearly 
defined  and  abided  by. 

Our  popular  form  of  government  has  so  habituated  us 
to  seeing  public  questions  decided  by  the  voice  of  the  ma 


ROOT  OF  THESE  COKEUPTIONS.  291 

jority,  and  the  system  is  so  manifestly  equitable  in  the 
cases  daily  before  us,  that  there  has  been  produced  in  the 
general  mind,  an  unhesitating  belief  that  the  majority's 
power  is  unbounded.  Under  whatever  circumstances,  or 
for  whatever  ends,  a  number  of  men  cooperate,  it  is  held 
that  if  difference  of  opinion  arises  among  them,  justice  re- 
quires that  the  will  of  the  greater  number  shall  be  exe- 
cuted rather  than  that  of  the  smaller  number ;  and  this 
rule  is  supposed  to  be  uniformly  applicable,  be  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  what  it  may.  So  confirmed  is  this  convic- 
tion, and  so  little  have  the  ethics  of  the  matter  been  con- 
sidered, that  to  most  this  mere  suggestion  of  a  doubt  will 
cause  some  astonishment.  Yet  it  needs  but  a  brief  analy- 
sis to  show  that  the  opinion  is  little  better  than  a  political 
superstition.  Instances  may  readily  be  selected,  which 
prove,  by  reductio  ad  ahsurdum^  that  the  right  of  a  ma- 
jority is  a  purely  conditional  right,  valid  only  within  spe- 
cific limits.     Let  us  take  a  few. 

Suppose  that  at  the  general  meeting  of  some  philan- 
thropic association,  it  was  resolved  that  in  addition  to  re- 
lieving distress  the  association  should  employ  home-mis- 
sionaries to  preach  down  popery.  Might  the  subscriptions 
of  Catholics,  who  had  joined  the  body  with  charitable 
views,  be  rightfully  used  for  this  end  ?  Suppose  that  of 
the  members  of  a  book-club,  the  greater  number,  thinking 
that  under  existing  circumstances  rifle-practice  was  more 
important  than  reading,  should  decide  to  change  the  pur- 
pose of  their  union,  and  to  apply  the  funds  in  hand  for 
the  purchase  of  powder,  ball,  and  targets.  Would  the 
rest  be  bound  by  this  decision  ?  Suppose  that  under  the 
excitement  of  news  from  Australia,  the  majority  of  a  Free- 
hold Land  Society  should  determine,  not  simply  to  start 
in  a  body  for  the  gold  diggings,  but  to  use  their  accumu- 
lated capital  to  provide  outfits.  Would  this  appropria- 
tion of  property  be  just  to  the  minority  ?  and  must  these 


292  RAILWAY  MORALS  AND  EAILWAT  POLICY. 

join  the  expedition  ?  Scarcely  any  one  would  venture  an 
affirmative  answer  even  to  the  first  of  these  questions ; 
much  less  to  the  others.  And  why  ?  Because  every  one 
must  perceive  that  by  uniting  himself  with  others,  no  man 
can  equitably  be  betrayed  into  acts  utterly  foreign  to  the 
purpose  for  which  he  joined  them.  Each  of  these  sup- 
posed minorities  would  properly  reply  to  those  seeking 
to  coerce -them:  "We  combined  with  you  for  a  defined 
object ;  we  gave  money  and  time  for  the  furtherance 
of  that  object ;  on  all  questions  thence  arising,  we  tacitly 
agreed  to  conform  to  the  will  of  the  greater  number ;  but 
we  did  not  agree  to  conform  on  any  other  questions. 
If  you  induce  us  to  join  you  by  professing  a  certain  end, 
and  then  undertake  some  other  end  of  which  we  were  not 
apprised,  you  obtain  our  support  under  false  pretences ; 
you  exceed  the  expressed  or  understood  compact  to  which 
we  committed  ourselves  ;  and  we  are  no  longer  bound  by 
your  decisions." 

Clearly  this  is  the  only  rational  interpretation  of  the 
matter.  The  general  principle  underlying  the  right  govern- 
ment of  every  incorporated  body  is,  that  its  members  con- 
tract with  each  other  severally  to  submit  to  the  will  of  the 
majority  i?i  all  matters  concerning  the  fulfilment  of  the  ob- 
jects for  which  they  are  incorporated  /  hut  in  no  others. 
To  this  extent  only  can  the  contract  hold.  For  as  it  is  im- 
plied in  the  very  nature  of  a  contract,  that  those  entering 
into  it  must  know  what  they  contract  to  do  ;  and  as  those 
who  unite  with  others  for  a  specified  object,  cannot  con- 
template all  the  unspecified  objects  which  it  is  hypotheti- 
cally  possible  for  the  union  to  undertake  ;  it  follows  that 
the  contract  entered  into  cannot  extend  to  such  unspeci- 
fied objects ;  and  if  there  exists  no  expressed  or  under- 
stood contract  between  the  union  and  its  members  respect- 
ing unspecified  objects,  then  for  the  majority  to  coerce  the 
minority  into  undertaking  them,  is  nothing  less  than  gross 
tyranny. 


THE  DIFFICULTY  A  BREACH  OF  CONTRACT.  293 

Kow  this  almost  self-evident  principle  is  wholly  ig- 
nored alike  in  our  railway  legislation  and  the  proceedings 
of  our  companies.  Definite  as  is  the  purpose  with  which 
the  promoters  of  a  public  enterprise  combine,  endless 
other  purposes  not  dreamed  of  at  the  outset  are  commonly 
added  to  it ;  and  this,  apparently  without  any  suspicion 
that  such  a  course  is  altogether  unwarrantable,  unless 
taken  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  proprietors. 
The  unsuspecting  shareholder  who  signed  the  subscription 
contract  for  a  line  from  Greatborough  to  Grandport,  did 
so  under  the  belief  that  this  line  would  not  only  be  a  pub- 
lic benefit  but  a  good  investment.  He  was  familiar  with 
the  country.  He  had  been  at  some  trouble  to  estimate 
the  traffic.  And,  fully  believing  that  he  knew  what  he 
was  embarking  in,  he  put  down  his  name  for  a  large 
amount.  The  line  has  been  made ;  a  few  years  of  pros- 
perity have  justified  his  foresight;  when,  at  some  fatal 
special  meeting,  a  project  is  put  before  him  for  a  branch 
from  Littlehomestead  to  Stonyfield.  The  will  of  the 
board  and  the  intrigues  of  the  interested,  overbear  all  op- 
position ;  and  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  many  who  like 
him  see  its  impolicy,  he  presently  finds  himself  involved 
in  an  undertaking  which,  when  he  joined  the  promoters 
of  the  original  line,  he  had  not  the  remotest  conception 
would  ever  be  proposed.  From  year  to  year  this  proceed- 
ing is  repeated.  His  dividends  dwindle  and  his  shares 
go  down ;  and  eventually  the  congeries  of  enterprises  to 
which  he  is  committed,  grows  so  vast  that  the  first  enter- 
prise of  the  series  becomes  but  a  small  fraction  of  the 
whole. 

Yet  it  is  in  virtue  of  his  consent  to  this  first  of  the 
series,  that  all  the  rest  are  thrust  upon  him.  He  feels  that 
there  is  an  injustice  somewhere  ;  but,  believing  in  the  un- 
limited right  of  a  majority,  fails  to  detect  it.  He  does 
not  see  that  when  the  first  of  these  extensions  was  pro- 


294  RAILWAY  MOEALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

posed,  he  should  have  denied  the  power  of  his  brother- 
shareholders  to  implicate  him  in  an  undertaking  not  named 
in  their  deed  of  incorporation.  He  should  have  told  the 
advocates  of  this  new  undertaking  that  they  were  per- 
fectly free  to  form  a  separate  Company  for  the  execution 
of  it ;  but  that  they  could  not  rightfully  compel  dissen- 
tients to  join  in  a  new  project,  any  more  than  they  could 
rightfully  have  compelled  dissentients  to  join  in  the  origi- 
nal project.  Had  such  a  shareholder  united  with  others 
for  the  specified  general  purpose  of  making  railways^  he 
would  have  had  no  ground  for  protest.  But  he  united 
with  others  for  the  specified  purpose  of  making  a  particu- 
lar railway.  Yet  such  is  the  confusion  of  ideas  on  the 
subject,  that  there  is  absolutely  no  diflference  recognized 
between  these  cases ! 

It  will  doubtless  be  alleged  in  defence  of  all  this,  that 
these  secondary  enterprises  are  supplementary  to  the  orig- 
inal one — or  in  some  sense  undertaken  for  the  furtherance 
of  it ;  professedly  minister  to  its  prosperity ;  cannot,  there- 
fore, be  regarded  as  altogether  separate  enterprises.  And 
it  is  true  that  they  have  this  for  their  excuse.  But  if  it  is 
a  sufficient  excuse  for  accessories  of  this  nature,  it  may  be 
made  a  sufficient  excuse  for  any  accessories  whatever. 
Already,  Companies  have  carried  the  practice  beyond  the 
making  of  branches  and  extensions.  Already,  under  the 
plea  of  bringing  more  traffic  to  their  lines,  they  have  con- 
structed docks  ;  bought  lines  of  steam-packets ;  built  vast 
hotels  ;  deepened  river-channels.  Already,  they  have  cre- 
ated small  towns  for  their  workmen ;  erected  churches 
and  schools ;  salaried  clergymen  and  teachers.  Are  these 
warranted  on  the  ground  of  advancing  the  Companies' 
interests  ?  Then  thousands  of  other  undertakings  are  sim- 
ilarly warranted. 

If  a  view  to  the  development  of  traffic  justifies  the 
making  of  a  branch  to   some  neighbouring   coal-mines, 


WHERE  THE  PRINCIPLE  LEADS.  295 

then,  should  the  coal-mines  he  inefficiently  worked,  the 
same  view  would  justify  the  purchase  of  them — would 
justify  the  Company  in  becoming  coal-miner  and  coal- 
seller.  If  anticipated  increase  of  goods  and  passengers  is 
a  sufficient  reason  for  carrying  a  feeder  into  an  agricultural 
district,  then  it  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  organizing  a  sys- 
tem of  coaches  and  wagons  to  run  in  connection  with 
this  feeder;  for  making  the  requisite  horse-breeding  es- 
tablishments ;  for  hiring  the  needful  farms ;  for  buying 
estates  ;  for  becoming  agriculturists.  If  it  be  allowable 
to  purchase  steamers  plying  in  conjunction  with  the  rail- 
way ;  it  must  be  allowable  to  purchase  merchant  vessels 
to  trade  in  conjunction  with  it ;  it  must  be  allowable  to 
set  up  a  yard  for  building  such  vessels  ;  it  must  be  allow- 
able to  erect  depots  at  foreign  ports  for  the  receipt  of 
goods ;  it  must  be  allowable  to  employ  commission  agents 
for  the  collection  of  such  goods ;  it  must  be  allowable  to 
extend  a  mercantile  organization  all  over  the  world. 
From  making  its  own  engines  and  carriages,  a  Company 
may  readily  progress  to  manufacturing  its  own  iron  and 
growing  its  own  timber.  From  giving  its  employh  secu- 
lar and  religious  instruction,  and  providing  houses  for 
them,  it  may  go  on  to  supply  them  with  food,  clothing, 
medical  attendance,  and  all  the  needs  of  life.  Beginning 
simply  as  a  corporation  to  make  and  work  a  railway  be- 
tween A  and  B,  it  may  become  a  miner,  manufacturer, 
merchant,  ship-owner,  canal-proprietor,  hotel-keeper,  land- 
owner, house-builder,  farmer,  retail-trader,  priest,  teacher — 
an  organization  of  indefinite  extent  and  complication. 
There  is  no  logical  alternative  between  permitting  this, 
and  strictly  limiting  the  corporation  to  the  object  first 
agreed  upon.  A  man  joining  with  others  for  a  specific 
purpose,  must  be  held  to  commit  himself  to  that  purpose 
only,  or  else  to  all  purposes  whatever  that  they  may  choose 
to  undertake. 


296  RAILWAY  MORALS   AND   RAILWAY  POLICY. 

But  proprietors  dissenting  from  one  of  these  supple- 
mentary projects  are  told  that  they  have  the  option  of 
selling  out.  So  might  the  dissentients  from  a  new  State- 
enforced  creed  be  told,  that  if  they  did  not  like  it  they 
might  leave  the  country.  The  one  reply  is  little  more  sat- 
isfactory than  the  other  would  be.  The  opposing  share- 
holder sees  himself  in  possession  of  a  good  investment — 
one  perhaps  which,  as  an  original  subscriber,  he  ran  some 
risk  in  obtaining.  This  investment  is  about  to  be  endan- 
gered by  an  act  not  named  in  the  deed  of  incorporation. 
And  his  protests  are  met  by  saying,  that  if  he  fears  the  dan- 
ger he  may  part  with  his  investment.  Surely  this  choice 
between  two  evils  scarcely  meets  his  claims.  Moreover, 
he  has  not  even  this  in  any  fair  sense.  It  is  often  an  unfa- 
vourable time  to  sell.  The  very  rumour  of  one  of  these 
extensions  frequently  causes  a  depreciation  of  stock.  And 
if  many  of  the  minority  throw  their  shares  on  the  market, 
this  depreciation  is  greatly  increased ;  a  fact  which  fur- 
ther hinders  them  from  selling.  Thus,  the  choice  is  in  re- 
ality between  parting  with  a  good  investment  at  much 
less  than  its  value,  and  running  the  risk  of  having  its  value 
greatly  diminished. 

The  injustice  thus  inflicted  on  minorities  is,  indeed,  al- 
ready recognized  in  a  certain  vague  way.  The  recently- 
established  Standing  Order  of  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
before  a  Company  can  carry  out  any  new  undertaking, 
three-fourths  of  the  votes  of  the  proprietors  shall  be  re- 
corded in  its  favour,  clearly  implies  a  perception  that  the 
usual  rule  of  the  majority  does  not  apply.  And  again,  in 
the  case  of  the  Great  Western  Railway  Company  versus 
Rushout,  the  decision  that  the  funds  of  the  Company 
could  not  be  used  for  purposes  not  originally  authorized, 
without  a  special  legislative  permit,  involves  the  doctrine 
that  the  will  of  the  greater  number  is  not  of  unlimited 
validity.     In  both  these  cases,  however,  it  is  taken  for 


GOVERNMENT  BOUND  TO   ENFORCE   CONTRACTS.         297 

granted  that  a  State- warrant  can  justify  what  without  it 
would  be  unjustifiable.  We  must  take  leave  to  question 
this.  If  it  be  held  that  an  Act  of  Parliament  can  make 
murder  proper,  or  can  give  rectitude  to  robbery,  it  may 
be  consistently  held  that  it  can  sanctify  a  breach  of  con- 
tract; but  not  otherwise.  We  are  not  about  to  enter 
upon  the  vexed  question  of  the  standard  of  right  and 
wrong ;  and  to  inquire  whether  it  is  the  function  of  a  gov- 
ernment to  make  rules  of  conduct,  or  simply  to  enforce  rules 
deducible  from  the  laws  of  social  life.  We  are  content, 
for  the  occasion,  to  adopt  the  expediency-hypothesis ;  and 
adopting  it,  must  yet  contend,  that,  rightly  interpreted,  it 
gives  no  countenance  to  this  supposed  power  of  a  Gov- 
ernment to  alter  the  limits  of  an  equitable  contract  against 
the  wishes  of  some  of  the  contracting  parties.  For,  as 
understood  by  its  teachers  and  their  chief  disciples,  the 
doctrine  of  expediency  is  not  a  doctrine  implying  that 
each  particular  act  is  to  be  determined  by  the  particular 
consequences  that  may  be  expected  to  flow  from  it ;  but 
that  the  general  consequences  of  entire  classes  of  acts  hav- 
ing been  ascertained  by  induction  from  experience,  rules 
shall  be  framed  for  the  regulation  of  such  classes  of  acts, 
and  each  rule  shall  be  uniformly  applied  to  every  act  com- 
ing under  it.  Our  whole  administration  of  justice  pro- 
ceeds on  this  principle  of  invariably  enforcing  an  ordained 
course,  regardless  of  special  results.  Were  immediate 
consequences  to  be  considered,  the  verdict  gained  by  the 
rich  creditor  against  the  poor  debtor  would  generally  be 
reversed ;  for  the  starvation  of  the  last  is  a  much  greater 
evil  than  the  inconvenience  of  the  first.  Most  thefts  aris- 
ing from  distress  would  go  unpunished ;  a  great  portion 
of  men's  wills  would  be  cancelled ;  many  of  the  wealthy 
would  be  dispossessed  of  their  fortunes. 

But  it  is  clearly  seen,  that  were  judges  thus  guided  by 
proximate  evils  and  benefits,  the  ultimate  result  would  be 
13* 


298  RAILWAY  MOEALS  AND  KAILWAY   POLICY. 

social  confusion;  that  what  was  immediately  expedient 
would  be  ultimately  inexpedient ;  and  hence  the  aim  at 
rigorous  uniformity,  spite  of  incidental  hardships.  Now, 
the  binding  nature  of  agreements  is  one  of  the  common- 
est and  most  important  principles  of  civil  law.  A  large 
part  of  the  causes  daily  heard  in  our  courts,  involve  the 
question,  whether  in  virtue  of  some  expressed  or  under- 
stood contract,  those  concerned  are,  or  are  not,  bound  to 
certain  acts  or  certain  payments.  And  when  it  has  been 
decided  what  the  contract  implies,  the  matter  is  settled. 
The  contract  itself  is  held  sacred.  And  this  sacredness 
of  a  contract,  being,  according  to  the  expediency-hypoth- 
esis, justified  by  the  experience  of  all  nations  in  all  times 
that  it  is  generally  beneficial,  it  is  not  competent  for  a 
Legislature  to  declare  that  contracts  are  violable.  As- 
suming always  that  the  contracts  are  themselves  equita- 
ble, there  is  no  rational  system  of  ethics  which  warrants 
the  alteration  or  dissolving  of  them,  save  by  the  consent 
of  all  concerned.  If  then  it  be  shown,  as  we  think  it  has 
been  shown,  that  the  contract  tacitly  entered  into  by  rail- 
way shareholders  with  each  other,  has  definite  limits ;  it 
is  the  function  of  the  Government  to  enforce^  and  not  to 
abolish^  those  limits.  It  cannot  decline  to  enforce  them 
without  running  counter,  not  only  to  all  theories  of  moral 
obligation,  but  to  its  own  judicial  system.  It  cannot  abol- 
ish them  without  glaring  self-stultification. 

Returning,  for  a  moment,  to  the  manifold  evils  of  which 
the  misinterpretation  of  the  proprietary  contract  was  as- 
signed as  the  cause,  it  only  remains  to  point  out  that,  were 
the  just  construction  of  this  contract  insisted  upon,  such 
evils  would,  in  great  part,  be  impossible.  The  various 
illicit  influences  by  which  Companies  are  daily  betrayed 
into  disastrous  extensions,  would  necessarily  be  inopera- 
tive when-  «uch  extensions  could  not  be  undertaken  by 
them.     When  such  extensions  had  to  be  undertaken  by 


COMMEECIAL   VIEW  OF  THE  MATTEE.  299 

independent  bodies  of  shareholders,  with  no  one  to  guar- 
antee them  good  dividends,  the  local  and  class  interests 
would  find  it  a  less  easy  matter  than  at  present  to  aggran- 
dize themselves  at  the  expense  of  others. 

And  now  as  to  the  policy  of  thus  modifying  railway 
legislation — the  commercial  policy  we  mean.  Leaving 
out  of  sight  the  more  general  social  interests,  let  us  glance 
at  the  effects  on  mercantile  interests— the  proximate  in- 
stead of  the  ultimate  effects.  The  implication  contained 
in  the  last  paragraph,  that  the  making  of  branches  and 
supplementary  lines  would  no  longer  be  so  facile,  will  be 
thought  to  prove  the  disadvantage  of  any  such  limit  as 
the  one  advocated.  Many  will  argue,  that  to  restrict 
Companies  to  their  original  undertakings  would  fatally 
cripple  railway  enterprise.  Many  others  will  remark, 
that,  however  detrimental  to  shareholders  this  extension 
system  may  have  been,  it  has  manifestly  proved  beneficial 
to  the  public.  Both  these  positions  seem  to  us  more  than 
questionable.     We  will  first  look  at  the  last  of  them. 

Even  were  travelling  accommodation  the  sole  thing  to 
be  considered,  it  would  not  be  true  that  prodigality  in 
new  lines  has  been  advantageous.  The  districts  supplied 
have,  in  many  cases,  themselves  been  injured  by  it.  It  is 
shown  by  the  evidence  given  before  the  Select  Committee 
on  Railway  and  Canal  Bills,  that  in  Lancashire,  the  exist- 
ence of  competing  lines  has,  in  some  cases,  both  dimin- 
ished the  facilities  of  communication  and  increased  the 
cost.  It  is  further  shown  by  this  evidence,  that  a  town 
obtaining  branches  from  two  antagonist  Companies,  by- 
and-by,  in  consequence  of  a  working  arrangement  be- 
tween these  Companies,  comes  to  be  worse  off  than  if  it 
had  but  one  branch:  and  Hastings  is  quoted  as  an  ex- 
ample. 

It  is  again  shown  that  a  district  may  be  wholly  de- 


300  RAILWAY  M0BAL8   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

prived  of  railway  accommodation  by  granting  a  superflu- 
ity of  lines ;  as  in  the  case  of  Wilts  and  Dorset.  In 
1844-'5,  the  Great  "Western  and  the  South  Western  Com- 
panies projected  rival  systems  of  lines,  supplying  these 
and  parts  of  the  adjacent  counties.  The  Board  of  Trade, 
"  asserting  that  there  was  not  sufficient  traffic  to  remuner- 
ate an  outlay  for  two  independent  railways,"  reported  in 
favour  of  the  Great  Western  schemes,  and  bills  were 
granted  for  them :  a  certain  agreement,  suggested  by  the 
Board  of  Trade,  being  at  the  same  time  made  with  the 
South  Western,  which,  in  return  for  specified  advantages, 
conceded  this  district  to  its  rival.  Notwithstanding  this 
agreement,  the  South  Western,  in  1847,  projected  an  ex- 
tension calculated  to  take  most  of  the  traffic  from  the 
Great  Western  extensions ;  and  in  1848,  Parliament, 
though  it  had  virtually  suggested  this  agreement,  and 
though  the  Great  Western  Company  had  already  spent  a 
million  and  a  half  in  the  part  execution  of  the  new  lines, 
authorized  the  South  Western  project.  The  result  was, 
that  the  Great  Western  Company  suspended  their  works ; 
the  South  Western  Company  were  unable,  from  financial 
difficulties,  to  proceed  with  theirs ;  the  district  has  re- 
mained for  years  unaccommodated ;  and  only  since  the 
powers  granted  to  the  South  Western  have  expired  from 
delay,  has  the  Great  Western  recommenced  its  long-sus- 
pended undertakings. 

And  if  this  undue  multiplication  of  supplementary 
lines  has  often  directly  decreased  the  facilities  of  commu- 
nication, still  more  has  it  done  this  indirectly,  by  main- 
taining the  cost  of  travelling  on  the  main  lines.  Little  as 
the  public  are  conscious  of  the  fact,  it  is  nevertheless  true, 
that  they  pay  for  the  accommodation  of  unremunerative 
districts,  by  high  fares  in  remunerative  districts.  Before 
this  reckless  branch-making  commenced,  8  and  9  per  cent, 
were  the  dividends  returned  by  our  chief  railways ;  and 


HOW  BBANCHE8   INJURE  THE  MAIN   LINES.  301 

these  dividends  were  rapidly  increasing.  The  maximum 
dividend  allowed  by  their  Acts  is  10  per  cent.  Had  there 
not  been  unprofitable  extensions,  this  maximum  would 
have  been  reached  many  years  since  ;  and  in  the  absence 
of  the  power  to  undertake  new  works,  the  fact  that  it  had 
been  reached  could  not  have  been  hidden.  Lower  rates 
for  goods  and  passengers  would  necessarily  have  followed. 
These  would  have  caused  a  large  additional  trafiic ;  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  natural  increase  otherwise  going  on, 
the  maximum  would  shortly  again  have  been  reached. 

There  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  repetitions  of  this 
process  would,  before  now,  have  reduced  the  fares  and 
freights  on  our  main  lines  to  at  least  one-third  less  than 
the  present  ones.  This  reduction,  be  it  remembered, 
would  have  affected  those  railways  which  subserve  com- 
mercial and  social  intercourse  in  the  greatest  degree — 
would,  therefore,  have  applied  to  the  most  important  part 
of  the  traffic  throughout  the  kingdom.  As  it  is,  however, 
this  greater  proportion  of  the  traffic  has  been  heavily 
taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  smaller  proportion.  That  the 
tens  who  travel  on  branches  might  have  railway  commu- 
nication, the  hundreds  who  travel  along  main  lines  have 
been  charged  30,  perhaps  40  per  cent,  extra.  Nay,  worse: 
that  these  tens  might  be  accommodated,  the  hundreds 
who  would  have  been  brought  on  to  the  main  lines  by 
lower  fares  have  gone  unaccommodated.  Is  it  then  so 
clear  that  undertakings  which  have  been  disastrous  to 
shareholders  have  yet  been  beneficial  to  the  public  ? 

But  it  is  not  only  in  greater  cost  of  transit  that  the 
evil  has  been  felt;  it  has  been  felt  also  in  diminished 
safety.  The  multiplication  of  railway  accidents,  which 
has  of  late  years  drawn  so  much  attention,  has  been  in  no 
inconsiderable  degree  caused  by  the  extension  policy. 
The  relation  is  not  obvious,  and  we  had  ourselves  no  con- 
ception that  such  a  relation  existed,  until  the  facts  illustra- 


302  RAILWAY  MOEALS   AND  RAILWAY   POLICY. 

tive  of  it  were  furnished  to  us  by  a  director  who  had  wit- 
nessed the  whole  process  of  causation.  When  preference- 
share  dividends  and  guarantees  began  to  make  large 
draughts  upon  half-yearly  revenues — when  original  stock 
was  greatly  depreciated,  and  the  dividends  upon  it  fell 
from  9  and  8  per  cent,  to  4^  and  4  and  3^,  great  dissatis- 
faction necessarily  arose  among  shareholders.  There  were 
stormy  meetings,  motions  of  censure,  and  committees  of 
investigation.  Retrenchment  was  the  general  cry;  and 
retrenchment  was  carried  to  a  most  imprudent  extent. 
Directors  with  an  indignant  proprietary  to  face,  and  under 
the  fear  that  their  next  dividend  would  be  no  greater,  per- 
haps less,  than  the  last,  dared  not  to  lay  out  money  for  the 
needful  repairs.  Permanent  way,  reported  to  them  as  re- 
quiring to  be  replaced,  was  made  to  serve  awhile  longer. 
Old  rolling  stock  was  not  superseded  by  new  to  the  proper 
extent ;  nor  increased  in  proportion  to  the  demand.  Com- 
mittees, appointed  to  examine  where  the  expenditure 
could  be  cut  down,  went  round  discharging  a  porter  here, 
dispensing  with  a  clerk  there,  and  diminishing  the  salaries 
of  the  officials  in  general.  To  such  a  length  was  this 
policy  carried,  that  in  one  case,  to  effect  a  saving  of  £1,200 
per  annum,  the  working  staff  was  so  crippled  as  to  cause, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  a  loss  of  probably  £100,000 : 
such,  at  least,  is  the  opinion  of  the  gentleman  on  whose 
authority  we  make  this  statement,  who  was  himself  one 
of  the  retrenchment  committee. 

What,  now,  was  the  necessary  result  of  all  this? 
With  the  line  out  of  condition;  with  engines  and  car- 
riages neither  sufficient  in  number  nor  in  the  best  working 
order ;  with  drivers,  guards,  porters,  clerks,  and  the  rest, 
decreased  to  the  smallest  number  with  which  it  was  pos- 
sible to  work ;  with  inexperienced  managers  in  place  of 
the  experienced  ones  driven  away  by  reduced  salaries ; 
what  was  likely  to  occur  ?    Was  it  not  certain  that  an 


EVILS   ENTAILED  BY  OVEB-EXTENSION.  303 

apparatus  of  means  just  competent  to  deal  with  the  ordi- 
nary traffic,  would  be  incompetent  to  deal  with  extraordi- 
nary traffic  ?  that  a  decimated  body  of  officials  under  infe- 
rior regulation,  would  fail  in  the  emergencies  sure  from 
time  to  time  to  occur  ?  that  with  way  and  works  and  roll- 
ing stock  all  below  par,  there  would  occasionally  be  a 
concurrence  of  small  defects,  permitting  something  to  go 
wrong  ?  Was  not  a  multiplication  of  accidents  inevita- 
ble ?  No  one  can  doubt  it.  And  if  we  trace  back  this 
result  step  by  step  to  its  original  cause — the  reckless  ex- 
penditure in  new  lines — we  shall  see  further  reason  to 
doubt  whether  such  expenditure  has  been  as  advantageous 
to  the  public  as  is  supposed.  We  shall  hesitate  to  indorse 
the  opinion  of  the  Select  Committee  on  Railway  and  Ca- 
nal Bills,  that  it  is  desirable  "  to  increase  the  facility  for 
obtaining  lines  of  local  convenience." 

Still  more  doubtful  becomes  the  alleged  benefit  accru- 
ing to  the  public  from  extensions  that  cause  loss  to  share- 
holders, when,  from  considering  the  question  as  one  of 
traffic,  we  turn  to  consider  it  as  a  general  commercial 
question — a  question  of  political  economy.  Were  there 
no  facts  showing  that  the  travelling  facilities  gained  were 
counterbalanced,  if  not  more  than  counterbalanced,  by  the 
travelling  facilities  lost,  we  should  still  contend  that  the 
making  of  branches  which  do  not  return  fair  dividends,  is 
a  national  evil,  and  not  a  national  good.  The  prevalent 
error  committed  in  studying  matters  of  this  nature,  con- 
sists in  looking  at  them  separately,  rather  than  in  connec- 
tion with  other  social  wants  and  social  benefits.  Not  only 
does  one  of  these  undertakings,  when  executed,  affect  so- 
ciety in  various  ways,  but  the  effort  put  forth  in  the  exe- 
cution of  it  affects  society  in  various  ways ;  and  to  form  a 
true  estimate,  the  two  sets  of  results  must  be  compared. 
The  axiom  that  "  action  and  reaction  are  equal,  and  in  op- 
posite directions,"  is  true,  not  only  in  mechanics — it  is  true 


304  RAILWAY   MORALS   AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

everywhere.  No  power  can  be  put  forth  by  a  nation  to 
achieve  a  given  end,  without  producing,  for  the  time  be- 
ing, a  corresponding  inability  to  achieve  some  other  end. 
No  amount  of  capital  can  be  abstracted  for  one  purpose, 
without  involving  an  equivalent  lack  of  capital  for  another 
purpose.  Every  advantage  wrought  out  by  labour,  is 
purchased  by  the  relinquishment  of  some  alternative  ad- 
vantage which  that  labour  might  else  have  wrought  out. 
In  judging,  therefore,  of  the  benefits  flowing  from  any 
public  undertaking,  it  is  requisite  to  consider  them  not  by 
themselves,  but  as  contrasted  with  the  benefits  which  the 
invested  capital  would  otherwise  have  secured. 

But  how  can  these  relative  benefits  be  measured  ?  it 
may  be  asked.  Very  simply.  The  rate  of  interest  which 
the  capital  will  bring  as  thus  respectively  applied,  is  the 
measure.  Money  which,  if  used  for  a  specific  end,  gives 
a  smaller  return  than  it  would  give  if  otherwise  used,  is 
used  disadvantageously,  not  only  to  its  possessors,  but  to 
the  community.  This  is  a  corollary  from  the  commonest 
principles  of  political  economy — a  corollary  so  simple  that 
we  can  scarcely  understand  how,  after  the  free-trade  con- 
troversy, a  committee,  numbering  among  its  members 
Mr.  Bright  and  Mr.  Cardwell,  should  have  overlooked  it. 
Have  we  not  been  long  ago  taught,  that  in  the  mercantile 
world  capital  goes  where  it  is  most  wanted — that  the  bus- 
iness which  is  at  any  time  attracting  capital  by  unusually 
high  returns,  is  a  business  proved  by  that  very  fact  to  be 
unusually  active — that  its  unusual  activity  shows  society 
to  be  making  great  demands  upon  it ;  giving  it  high  prof- 
its ;  wanting  its  commodities  or  services  more  than  other 
commodities  or  services  ?  Do  not  comparisons  among 
our  railways  demonstrate  that  those  paying  large  divi- 
dends are  those  subserving  the  public  needs  in  a  greater 
degree  than  those  paying  smaller  dividends  ?  and  is  it  not 
obvious  that  the  efforts  of  capitalists  to  get  these  larger 


MISAPPROPEIATION  OF  CAPITAL.         305 

dividends  led  them  to  supply  the  greater  needs  before  the 
lesser  needs  ? 

Surely,  the  same  law  which  holds  in  ordinary  com- 
merce, and  also  holds  between  one  railway  investment 
and  another,  holds  likewise  between  railway  investments 
and  other  investments.  If  the  money  spent  in  making 
branches  and  feeders  is  yielding  an  average  return  of  from 
1  to  2  per  cent.,  while  if  employed  in  land-draining  or 
ship-building,  it  would  return  4  or  5  per  cent,  or  more,  it 
is  a  conclusive  proof  that  money  is  more  wanted  for  land- 
draining  and  ship-building  than  for  branch-making.  And 
the  general  conclusions  to  be  drawn  are,  that  that  large 
proportion  of  railway  capital  which  does  not  pay  the  cur- 
rent rate  of  interest,  is  capital  ill  laid  out ;  that  if  the  returns 
on  such  proportion  were  capitalized  at  the  current  rate  of 
interest,  the  resulting  sum  would  represent  its  real  value ; 
and  that  the  difference  between  this  sum  and  the  amount 
expended,  would  indicate  the  national  loss — a  loss  which, 
on  the  lowest  estimate,  would  exceed  £100,000,000.  And 
however  true  it  may  be  that  the  sum  invested  in  unprofit- 
able lines  will  go  on  increasing  in  productiveness,  yet  as, 
if  more  wisely  invested,  it  would  similarly  have  gone  on 
increasing  in  productiveness,  perhaps  even  at  a  greater 
rate,  this  vast  loss  must  be  regarded  as  a  permanent  and 
not  as  a  temporary  one. 

Again  then,  we  ask,  is  it  so  obvious  that  undertakings 
which  have  been  disastrous  to  shareholders  have  been  ad- 
vantageous to  the  public  ?  Is  it  not  obvious,  rather,  that 
in  this  respect,  as  in  others,  the  interests  of  shareholders 
and  the  public  are  in  the  end  identical  ?  And  does  it  not 
seem  that  instead  of  recommending  "  increased  facilities 
for  obtaining  lines  of  local  convenience,"  the  Select  Com- 
mittee might  properly  have  reported  that  the  existing  fa- 
cilities are  abnormally  great,  and  should  be  decreased  ? 

There  remains  still  to  be  considered  the  other  of  the 


306  EAILWAT  M0EAL8  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

two  objections  above  stated  as  liable  to  be  raised  against 
the  proposed  interpretation  of  the  proprietary  contract — 
the  objection,  namely,  that  it  would  be  a  serious  hindrance 
to  railway  enterprise.  After  what  has  already  been  said, 
it  is  scarcely  needful  to  reply,  that  the  hindrance  would 
be  no  greater  than  is  natural  and  healthful — no  greater 
than  is  requisite  to  hold  in  check  the  private  interests  at 
variance  with  public  ones.  This  notion  that  railway  en- 
terprise will  not  go  on  with  due  activity  without  artificial 
incentives — that  bills  for  local  extensions  "rather  need 
encouragement,"  as  the  committee  say,  is  nothing  but  a 
remnant  of  protectionism.  The  motive  which  has  hith- 
erto led  to  the  formation  of  all  independent  railway  com- 
panies— ^the  search  of  capitalists  for  good  investments — 
may  safely  be  left  to  form  others  as  fast  as  local  require- 
ments become  great  enough  to  promise  fair  returns ;  as 
fast,  that  is,  as  local  requirements  should  be  satisfied. 
This  would  be  manifest  enough  without  illustration ;  but 
there  are  facts  proving  it. 

Already  we  have  incidentally  referred  to  the  circum- 
stance, that  it  has  of  late  become  common  for  landowners, 
merchants,  and  others  locally  interested,  to  get  up  rail- 
ways for  their  own  accommodation,  which  they  do  not 
expect  to  pay  satisfactory  dividends;  and  in  which  they 
are  yet  content  to  invest  considerable  sums,  under  the  be- 
lief that  the  indirect  profits  accruing  to  them  from  in- 
creased facilities  of  traffic,  will  outbalance  the  direct  loss. 
To  so  great  an  extent  is  this  policy  being  carried,  that,  as 
stated  to  the  Select  Committee,  "  in  Yorkshire  and  Nor- 
thumberland, where  branch  lines  are  being  made  through 
mere  agricultural  districts,  the  landowners  aje  giving  their 
land  for  the  purpose,  and  taking  shares."  With  such  ex- 
amples before  us,  it  cannot  rationally  be  doubted  that 
there  will  always  be  capital  forthcoming  for  making  local 
lines  as  soon  as  the  sum  of  the  calculated  benefits,  direct 
and  indirect,  justifies  its  expenditure. 


HOW  BRANCHES   SHOULD  BE  CONSTRTTCTED.  307 

"  But,"  it  will  be  urged,  "  a  branch  that  would  be  un- 
remunerative  as  an  independent  property,  is  often  remu- 
nerative to  the  company  that  has  made  it,  in  virtue  of  the 
traffic  it  brings  to  the  trunk  line.  Though  yielding  mea- 
gre returns  on  its  own  capital,  yet,  by  increasing  the  re- 
turns on  the  capital  of  the  trunk  line,  it  compensates,  or 
more  than  compensates.  Were  the  existing  company, 
however,  forbidden  to  extend  its  undertaking,  such  a 
branch  would  not  be  made,  and  injury  would  result." 
This  is  all  true,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  assertion, 
that  such  a  branch  would  not  be  made.  Though  in  its 
corporate  capacity  the  company  owning  the  trunk  line 
would  be  unable  to  join  in  a  work  of  this  nature,  there 
would  be  nothing  to  prevent  individual  shareholders  in 
the  trunk  line  from  doing  so  to  any  extent  they  thought 
fit :  and  were  the  prospects  as  favourable  as  is  assumed, 
this  course,  being  manifestly  advantageous  to  individual 
shareholders,  would  be  pursued  by  many  of  them.  If, 
acting  in  concert  with  others  similarly  circumstanced,  the 
owner  of  £10,000  worth  of  stock  in  the  trunk  line,  could 
aid  the  carrying  out  of  a  proposed  feeder  promising  to  re- 
turn only  2  per  cent,  on  its  cost,  by  taking  shares  to  the 
extent  of  £1,000,  it  would  answer  his  purpose  to  do  this, 
providing  the  extra  traffic  it  brought  would  raise  the 
trunk-line  dividend  by  one-fourth  per  cent.  Thus,  under 
a  limited  proprietary  contract,  companies  would  still,  as 
now,  foster  extensions  where  they  were  wanted  ;  the  only 
diffiarence  being,  that  in  the  absence  of  guaranteed  divi- 
dends, some  caution  would  be  shown,  and  the  poorer 
shareholders  would  not,  as  at  present,  be  sacrificed  to  the 
richer. 

In  brief,  our  position  is,  that  whenever,  by  the  efforts 
of  all  parties  to  be  advantaged — local  landowners,  manu- 
facturers, merchants,  trunk-line  shareholders,  &c.,  the  cap- 
ital for  an  extension  can  be  raised — whenever  it  becomes 


308  RAILWAY  MORALS  AND  RAILWAY  POLICY. 

clear  to  all  such,  that  their  indirect  profits  plus  their  direct 
profits  will  make  the  investment  a  paying  one ;  the  fact  is 
proof  that  the  line  is  wanted.  On  the  contrary,  whenever 
the  prospective  gains  to  those  interested  are  insufficient  to 
induce  them  to  undertake  it,  the  fact  is  proof  that  the  line 
is  not  wanted  so  much  as  other  things  are  wanted,  and 
therefore  ought  not  to  he  made.  Instead,  then,  of  the  prin- 
ciple we  advocate  being  objectionable  as  a  check  to  rail- 
way enterprise,  one  of  its  merits  is,  that  by  destroying  the 
artificial  incentives  to  such  enterprise,  it  would  confine  it 
within  normal  limits. 

A  perusal  of  the  evidence  given  before  the  Select  Com- 
mittee will  show  that  it  has  sundry  other  merits,  which 
we  have  space  only  to  indicate. 

It  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Laing — and  Mr.  Stephenson, 
while  declining  to  commit  himself  to  the  estimate,  "  does 
not  believe  he  has  overstated  it " — ^that  out  of  the  £280,- 
000,000  already  raised  for  the  construction  of  our  railways, 
£70,000,000  has  been  needlessly  spent  in  contests,  in  du- 
plicate lines,  in  "  the  multiplication  of  an  immense  num- 
ber of  schemes  prosecuted  at  an  almost  reckless  expense;" 
and  Mr.  Stephenson  believes  that  this  sum  is  "  a  very  in- 
adequate representative  of  the  actual  loss  in  point  of  con- 
venience, economy,  and  other  circumstances  connected 
with  traffic,  which  the  public  has  sustained  by  reason  of 
parliamentary  carelessness  in  legislating  for  railways." 
Under  an  equitable  interpretation  of  the  proprietary  con- 
tragic  the  greater  part  of  this  would  have  been  avoided. 
^The  competition  between  rival  companies  in  extension 
and  branch-making,  which  has  already  done  vast  injury, 
and  the  effects  of  which,  if  not  stopped,  will,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  Mr.  Stephenson,  be  such  that  "  property  now  pay- 
ing 5^  per  cent,  will  in  ten  years  be  worth  only  3  per  cent, 
and  that  on  twenty-one  millions  of  money  " — ^this  compe- 
tition could  never  have  existed  in  its  intense  and^delete- 
rious  form  under  the  limiting  principle  we  advocate.\ 


NEED  OF  NORMAL   COMPETITION.  309 

Prompted  by  jealousy  and  antagonism,  our  companies 
have  obtained  powers  for  2,000  miles  of  railway  which 
they  have  never  made.  The  millions  thus  squandered  in 
surveys  and  parliamentary  contests — "food  for  lawyers 
and  engineers " — would  nearly  all  have  been  saved,  had 
each  supplementary  line  been  obtainable  only  by  an  inde- 
pendent body  of  proprietors  with  no  one  to  shield  them 
from  the  penalties  of  reckless  scheming. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  branches  and  feeders  constructed 
from  competitive  motives  have  not  been  laid  out  in  the 
best  directions  for  the  public.  To  defeat,  or  retaliate 
upon,  opponents,  having  been  one  of  the  ends — often  the 
chief  end — in  making  them,  routes  have  been  chosen  espe- 
cially calculated  to  effect  this  end ;  and  the  local  traffic 
has  in  consequence  been  ill  provided  for.  Had  these 
branches  and  feeders,  however,  been  left  to  the  enterprise 
of  their  respective  districts,  aided  by  such  other  enterprise 
as  they  could  attract,  the  reverse  would  have  been  the 
fact :  seeing  that  on  the  average,  in  these  smaller  cases,  as 
in  the  greater  ones,  the  routes  which  most  accommodate 
the  pjiblic  must  be  the  routes  most  profitable  to  projectors. 

(Were  the  illegitimate  competition  in  extension-making 
done  away,  there  would  remain  between  companies  just 
that  normal  competition  which  is  advantageous  to  all.  It 
is  not  true,  as  is  alleged,  that  there  cannot  exist  between 
railways  a  competition  analogous  to  that  which  exists  be- 
tween traderO  The  evidence  of  Mr.  Saunders,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Great  "Western  Company,  proves  the  contrary. 
He  shows  that  where  the  Great  Western  and  the  North 
Western  railways  communicate  with  the  same  towns,  as 
at  Birmingham  and  Oxford,  each  has  tacitly  adopted  the 
fare  which  the  other  was  charging ;  and  that  while  there 
is  thus  no  competition  in  fares,  there  is  competition  in 
speed  and  accommodation.  The  results  are,  that  each 
takes  that  portion  of  the  traffic,  which,  in  virtue  of  its  po- 


310  BAILWAY  M0EAL8  AND  EAILWAY  POLICY. 

sition  and  local  circumstances,  naturally  falls  to  its  share ; 
that  each  stimulates  the  other  to  give  the  greatest  advan- 
tages it  can  afford  ;  and  that  each  keeps  the  other  in  order 
by  threatening  to  take  away  its  natural  share  of  the  traf- 
fic, if,  by  ill-behaviour  or  inefficiency,  it  counterbalances 
the  special  advantages  it  offers.  Now,  this  is  just  the 
form  which  competition  eventually  assumes  between  trad- 
ers. After  it  has  been  ascertained  by  underselling  what 
is  the  lowest  remunerative  price  at  which  any  commodity 
can  be  sold,  the  general  results  are,  that  that  becomes  the 
established  price ;  that  each  trader  is  content  to  supply 
those  only  who,  from  proximity  or  other  causes,  naturally 
come  to  him ;  and  that  only  when  he  treats  his  customers 
badly,  need  he  fear  that  they  will  inconvenience  them- 
selves by  going  elsewhere  for  their  goods. 

Is  there  not,  then,  pressing  need  for  an  amendment  of 
the  laws  affecting  the  proprietary  contract-^an  amend- 
ment which  shall  transform  it  from  an  unlimited  into  a 
limited  contract ;  or  rather  not  transform  it  into  such,  but 
recognize  it  as  such  ?  K  there  be  truth  in  our  argument, 
the  absence  of  any  limitation  has  been  the  chief  cause  of 
the  manifold  evils  of  our  railway  administration.  The 
share-trafficking  of  directors ;  the  complicated  intrigues 
of  lawyers,  engineers,  contractors,  and  others  ;  the  betrayal 
of  proprietaries — all  the  complicated  corruptions  which  we 
have  detailed,  have  primarily  arisen  from  it,  have  been 
made  possible  by  it.  It  has  rendered  travelling  more 
costly  and  less  safe  than  it  would  have  been ;  and  while 
apparently  facilitating  traffic,  has  indirectly  hindered  it. 
By  fostering  antagonism,  it  has  led  to  the  ill  laying-out  of 
supplementary  lines ;  to  the  wasting  of  enonnous  sums  in 
useless  parliamentary  contests ;  to  the  loss  of  an  almost 
incredible  amount  of  national  capital  in  the  making  of 
railways  for  which  there  is  no  due  requirement.     Regarded 


EXTENT  OF  THE  INTERESTS   ECnTOLVED.  311 

in  the  mass,  the  inyestments  of  shareholders  have  been 
reduced  by  it  to  less  than  half  the  average  productiveness 
which  such  investments  should  possess ;  and,  as  all  au- 
thorities admit,  railway  property  is,  even  now,  kept  below 
its  real  value,  by  the  fear  of  future  depreciations  conse- 
quent on  future  extensions. 

Considering,  then,  the  vastness  of  the  interests  at 
stake — considering  that  the  total  capital  of  our  companies 
will  soon  reach  £300,000,000 — considering,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  immense  number  of  persons  owning  this  capital 
(many  of  them  with  no  incomes  but  what  are  derived 
from  it),  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  great  extent  to  which 
the  community  is  concerned,  both  directly  as  to  its  com- 
mercial facilities,  and  indirectly  as  to  the  economy  of  its 
resources — considering  all  this,  it  becomes  extremely  im- 
portant that  railway  property  should  be  placed  on  a  secure 
footing,  and  railway  enterprise  confined  within  normal 
bounds.  The  change  is  demanded  alike  for  the  welfare  of 
shareholders  and  the  public ;  and  it  is  one  which  equity 
manifestly  dictates.  No  charge  of  over-legislation  can  be 
brought  against  it.  Tit  is  simply  an  extension  to  joint-stock 
contracts,  of  the  prmciple  applied  to  all  other  contracts  ; 
it  is  merely  a  fulfilment  of  the  State's  judicial  function  in 
cases  hitherto  neglected ;  it  is  nothing  but  a  better  admin- 
istration of  justiceTX 


VIII. 

GRACEFULNESS. 


THE  doctrine  that  Beauty  is  our  general  name  for  cer- 
tain qualities  of  things  which  are  habitually  asso- 
ciated with  our  gratifications,  and  that  thus  our  idea  of 
beauty  is  a  result  of  accumulated  pleasurable  experiences 
— a  doctrine  with  which,  under  an  expanded  form,  I  wholly 
agree — ^has  not,  I  think,  been  applied  to  that  quality  of 
form  and  movement  which  we  term  Grace. 

The  attribute  to  which  we  apply  this  term  clearly  im- 
plies some  perfection  in  the  thing  possessing  it.  We  do 
not  ascribe  this  attribute  to  cart-horses,  tortoises^  and  hip- 
popotami, in  all  of  which  the  powers  of  movement  are 
imperfectly  developed;  but  we  do  ascribe  it  to  grey- 
hounds, antelopes,  racehorses,  all  of  which  have  highly 
efficient  locomotive  organs.  What,  then,  is  this  distinctive 
peculiarity  of  structure  and  action  which  we  call  Grace  ? 

One  night  while  watching  a  dancer,  and  inwardly  con- 
demning her  tours  de  force  as  barbarisms  which  would  be 
hissed,  were  not  people  such  cowards  as  always  to  applaud 
what  they  think  it  the  fashion  to  applaud,  I  remarked 
that  the  truly  graceful  motions  occasionally  introduced, 
were  those  performed  with  comparatively  little  effort. 
And  remembering  sundry  confirmatory  facts,  I  presently 


GEACE  THE   ECONO^rT   OF  MUSCULAR   EFFORT.       313 

came  to  the  general  conclusion,  that,  given  a  certain 
change  of  attitude  to  be  gone  through — a  certain  action 
to  be  achieved,  then  it  is  most  gracefully  achieved  when 
achieved  with  the  least  expenditure  of  force.  In  other 
words,  grace,  as  applied  to  motion,  describes  motion  that 
is  effected  with  an  economy  of  muscular  power  ;  grace,  as 
applied  to  animal  forms,  describes  forms  capable  of  this 
economy ;  grace,  as  applied  to  postures,  describes  postures 
that  may  be  maintained  with  this  economy  ;(and  grace,  as 
as  applied  to  inanimate  objects,  describes  such  as  exhibit 
certain  analogies  to  these  attitudes  and  forms^ 

/  That  this  generalization,  if  not  the  whole  truth,  con- 
tains at  least  a  large  part  of  it,  will,  I  think,  become  ob- 
vious, oniconsidei^n^'how  habitually  we  couple  the  words 
easy  and  graceful ;  and  stiH  more,  oh  calling  to  mind 
some  of  the  facts  on  which  this  association  is  based.  /The 
attitude  of  a  soldier,  drawing  himself  bolt  upright  when 
his  sergeant  shouts  "attention,"  is  more  remote  from 
gracefulness  than  when  he  relaxes  at  the  words  "  stand  at 
ease."  )  The  gauche  visitor  sitting  stiffly  on  the  edge  of 
his  chair,  and  his  self-possessed  host,  whose  limbs  and 
body  dispose  themselves  as  convenience  dictates,  are  con- 
trasts as  much  in  effort  as  in  elegance.  When  standing, 
we  commonly  economize  power  by  throwing  the  weight 
chiefly  on  one  leg,  which  we  straighten  to  make  it  serve 
as  a  column,  while  we  relax  the  other ;  and  to  the  same 
end,  we  allow  the  head  to  lean  somewhat  on  one  side. 
Both  these  attitudes  are  imitated  in  sculpture  as  elements 
of  grace. 

Turning  from  attitudes  to  movements,  our  current  re- 
marks will  be  found  to  imply  the  same  relationship.  No 
one  praises  as  graceful,  a  walk  that  is  irregular  and  jerking, 
and  so  displays  waste  of  power ;  no  one  sees  any  beauty  in 
the  waddle  of  a  fat  man,  or  the  trembling  steps  of  an  invalid, 
in  both  of  which  effort  is  visible.  But  the  style  of  walk- 
14 


814:  GRACEFULNESS. 

ing  we  admire  is  moderate  in  velocity,  perfectly  rhyth- 
mical, unaccompanied  by  violent  swinging  of  the  arms, 
and  giving  us  the  impression  that  there  is  no  conscious 
exertion,  and,  at  the  same  time,  that  there  is  no  force 
thrown  away.  In  dancing,  again,  the  prevailing  difficulty 
— ^the  proper  disposal  of  the  hands  and  arms — well  illus- 
trates the  same  truth.  Those  who  fail  in  overcoming  this 
difficulty  give  the  spectator  the  impression  that  their 
arms  are  a  trouble  to  them ;  they  are  held  stiffly  in  some 
meaningless  attitude,  at  an  obvious  expense  of  power; 
they  are  checked  from  swinging  in  the  directions  in  which 
they  would  naturally  swing ;  or  they  are  so  moved,  that, 
instead  of  helping  to  maintain  the  equilibrium,  they  en- 
danger it.  A  good  dancer,  on  the  contrary,  makes  us  feel 
that,  so  far  from  the  arms  being  in  the  way,  they  are  of 
great  use.  Each  motion  of  them,  while  it  seems  naturally 
to  result  from  a  previous  motion  of  the  body,  is  turned  to 
some  advantage.  We  perceive  that  it  has  facilitated  in- 
stead of  hindered  the  general  action ;  or,  in  other  words — 
that  an  economy  of  effort  has  been  achieved.  (Any  one 
wishing  to  distinctly  realize  this  fact,  may  readily  do  so 
by  studying  the  action  of  the  arms  in  walking.  Let  him 
place  his  arms  close  to  his  sides,  and  there  keep  them, 
while  walking  with  some  rapidity.  He  will  unavoidably 
fall  into  a  backward  and  forward  motion  of  the  shoulders, 
of  a  wriggling,  ungraceful  character.  After  persevering 
in  this  for  a  space,  until  he  finds,  as  he  will  do,  that  the 
action  is  not  only  ungraceful  but  fatiguing,  let  him  sud- 
denly allow  his  arms  to  swing  as  usual.  The  wriggling 
of  the  shoulders  will  cease ;  the  body  will  be  found  to 
move  equably  forward ;  and  comparative  ease  will  be  felt. 
On  analyzing  this  fact,  he  may  perceive  that  the  backward 
motion  of  each  arm  is  simultaneous  with  the  forward  mo- 
tion of  the  corresponding  leg ;  and,  if  he  will  attend  to 
his  muscular  sensations,  he  will  find  (what  if  a  mathemati- 


AS  SEEN  IN  DANCING  AND   SKATING.  315 

cian  he  will  recognize  as  a  consequence  of  the  law  that 
action  and  reaction  are  equal  and  opposite)  that  this  back- 
ward swing  of  the  arm  is  a  counterbalance  to  the  forward 
swing  of  the  leg ;  and  that  it  is  easier  to  produce  this 
counterbalance  by  moving  the  arm  than  by  contorting  the 
body,  as  he  otherwise  must  do.* 

The  action  of  the  arms  in  walking  being  thus  under- 
stood, it  will  be  manifest  that  the  graceful  employment  of 
them  in  dancing  is  simply  a  complication  of  the  same 
thing ;  and  that  a  good  dancer  is  one  having  so  acute  a 
muscular  sense  as  at  once  to  feel  in  what  direction  the 
arms  should  be  moved  to  most  readily  counterbalance  any 
motion  of  the  body  or  legs.    / 

This  connection  between  gracefulness  and  economy  of 
force,  will  be  most  vividly  recognized  by  those  who  skate. 
They  will  remember  that  all  early  attempts,  and  especially 
the  first  timid  experiments  in  figure  skating,  are  alike 
awkward  and  fatiguing ;  and  that  the  acquirement  of  skill 
is  also  the  acquirement  of  ease.  The  requisite  confidence, 
and  a  due  command  of  the  feet  having  been  obtained, 

*  A  parallel  fact,  further  elucidating  this,  is  supplied  by  every  locomo- 
tive engine.  On  looking  at  the  driving-wheel,  there  wiU  be  found  besides 
the  boss  to  which  the  connecting  rod  is  attached,  a  corresponding  mass  of 
metal  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  wheel,  and  equidistant  from  the  centre ; 
or,  if  the  engine  be  one  having  inside  cylinders,  then,  on  looking  between 
the  spokes  of  the  driving-wheel,  it  will  be  seen  that  against  each  crank  is  a 
block  of  iron,  similar  to  it  in  size,  but  projecting  from  the  axle  in  the  re- 
verse direction.  Evidently,  being  placed  on  opposite  sides  of  the  centre  of 
motion,  each  crank  and  its  counterbalance  move  in  opposite  directions  rela- 
tively to  the  axle ;  and  by  so  doing,  neutralize  each  other's  perturbing  ef- 
fects, and  permit  a  perfectly  smooth  rotation.  Just  the  same  relationship 
that  exists  between  the  motions  of  the  counterbalance  and  the  crank,  exists 
between  the  motions  of  the  arms  and  legs  in  walking ;  and  in  the  early 
days  of  railway  locomotion,  before  these  counterbalance  weights  were  used, 
locomotive  driving-wheels  were  subject  to  violent  oscillations,  strictly  analo- 
gous to  those  jerkings  of  the  shoulders  that  arise  when  we  walk  fast  with- 
out moving  our  arms. 


^X^  GRACEFULNESS. 

those  twistings  of  the  trunk  and  gyrations  of  the  arms, 
previously  used  to  maintain  the  balance,  are  found  need- 
less ;  the  body  is  allowed  to  follow  without  control  the 
impulse  given  to  it ;  the  arms  to  swing  where  they  will ; 
and  it  is  clearly  felt  that  the  graceful  way  of  performing 
any  evolution  is  the  way  that  costs  least  effort.  ( Specta- 
tors can  scarcely  fail  to  see  the  same  fact,  if  they  look  for 
it.  Perhaps  there  is  no  case  in  which  they  may  so  dis- 
tinctly perceive  that  the  movements  called  graceful  are 
those  which  fulfil  a  given  end  with  the  smallest  expendi- 
ture of  force.   ) 

The  reference  to  skating  suggests,  that  graceful  motion 
might  be  defined  as  motion  in  curved  lines.  Certainly, 
straight  and  zig-zag  movements  are  excluded  from  the 
conception.  The  sudden  stoppages  and  irregularities 
which  angular  movements  imply,  are  its  antithesis  :  for  a 
leading  element  of  grace  is  continuity,  flowingness.  It 
will  be  found,  however,  that  this  is  merely  another  aspect 
of  the  same  truth ;  and  that  motion  in  curved  lines  is  eco- 
nomical motion.  Given  certain  successive  positions  to  be 
assumed  by  a  limb,  then  if  it  be  moved  in  a  straight  line 
to  the  first  of  these  positions,  suddenly  arrested,  and  then 
moved  in  another  direction  straight  to  the  second  position, 
and  so  on,  it  is  clear  that  at  each  arrest,  the  momentum 
previously  given  to  the  limb  must  be  destroyed  at  a  cer- 
tain cost  of  force,  and  a  new  momentum  given  to  it  at  a 
further  cost  of  force;  whereas,  if,  instead  of  arresting  the 
limb  at  its  first  position,  its  motion  be  allowed  to  continue, 
and  a  lateral  force  be  impressed  upon  it  to  make  it  diverge 
towards  the  second  position,  a  curvilinear  motion  is  the 
necessary  result :  and  by  making  use  of  the  original  mo- 
mentum, force  is  economized. 

If  the  truth  of  these  conclusions  respecting  graceful 
movement  be  admitted,  it  cannot,  I  thinK,  be  doubted, 
that  graceiul  form  is  that  kind  of  form  wnich  both  im- 


ITS  ASSOCIATION  WITH  FORMS.  317 

presses  us  with  the  small  effort  required  for  self-support, 
and  the  small  effort  required  for  movement.  Were  it 
otherwise,  there  would  arise  the  incongruity  that  graceful 
form  would  either  not  be  associated  at  all  with  graceful 
movement,  or  that  the  one  would  habitually  occur  in  the 
absence  of  the  other ;  both  which  alternatives  being  quite 
at  variance  with  our  experience,  we  are  compelled  to  con- 
clude that  there  exists  the  relationship  indicatedf^'^ny 
one  hesitating  to  admit  this,  will,  I  think,  do  so  no  longer 
on  remembering  that  the  animals  which  we  consider  grace- 
ful, are  those  so  slight  in  build  as  not  to  be  burdened  by 
their  own  weight,  and  those  noted  for  fleetness  and  agil- 
ity ;  while  those  we  class  as  ungraceful,  are  those  which 
are  alike  cumbrous  and  have  the  faculty  of  locomotion  but 
little  developed.  )  In  the  case  of  the  greyhound,  especially, 
we  see  that  the  particular  modification  of  the  canine  type 
in  which  the  economy  of  weight  is  the  most  conspicuous, 
and  in  which  the  facility  of  muscular  motion  has  been 
brought  by  habit  to  the  greatest  perfection,  is  the  one 
which  we  call  most  graceful. 

/  How  trees  and  inanimate  objects  should  ever  come  to 
nave  this  epithet  applied  to  them,  will  seem  less  obvious. 
But  the  fact  that  we  commonly,  and  perhaps  unavoidably, 
regard  all  objects  under  a  certain  anthropomorphic  aspect, 
will,  I  think,  help  us  to  understand  it^  The  stiff  branch 
of  an  oak  tree  standing  out  at  right  angles  to  the  trunk, 
gives  us  a  vague  notion  of  great  force  expended  to  keep  it 
in  that  position;  and  we  call  it  ungraceful,  under  the 
same  feeling  that  we  call  the  holding  out  an  arm  at  right 
angles  to  the  body  ungraceful.  Conversely,  the  lax  droop- 
ing boughs  of  a  weeping-willow  are  vaguely  associated 
with  limbs  in  easy  attitudes — attitudes  requiring  little 
effort  to  maintain  them ;  and  the  term  graceful,  by  which 
we  describe  these,  we  apply  by  metaphor  to  the  willow. 
I  may/^s  well  here,  in  a  few  lines,^enture  the  hypoth- 


318  GRACEFULNESS. 

esis,  that  this  notion  of  Grace  has  its  subjective  basis  in 
Sympathy.  The  same  faculty  which  makes  us  shudder  on 
seeing  another  in  danger — which  sometimes  causes  motion 
of  our  own  limbs  on  seeing  another  struggle  or  fall,  gives 
us  a  vague  participation  in  all  the  muscular  sensations 
which  those  around  us  are  experiencing.  When  their 
motions  are  violent  or  awkward,  we  feel  in  a  slight  degree 
the  disagreeable  sensations  which  we  should  have  were 
they  our  own.  When  they  are  easy,  we  sympathize  with 
the  pleasant  sensations  they  imply  in  those  exhibiting 
them. 


IX. 


STATE-TAMPEEINGS  WITH  MONEY  AND 

BANKS.  • 


AMON'G  unmitigated  rogues,  mutual  trust  is  impossi- 
ble. Among  people  of  absolute  integrity,  mutual 
trust  would  be  unlimited.  These  ^re  truisms.  Given  a 
nation  made  up  entirely  of  liars  and  thieves,  and  all  trade 
among  its  members  must  be  carried  on  either  by  barter  or 
by  a  currency  of  intrinsic  value :  nothing  in  the  shape  of 
promises  to  pay  can  pass  in  place  of  actual  payments ;  for, 
by  the  hypothesis,  such  promises  being  never  fulfilled, 
will  not  be  taken.  On  the  other  hand,  given  a  nation  of 
perfectly  honest  men — men  as  careful  of  others'  rights  as 
of  their  own — and  nearly  all  trade  among  its  members 
may  be  carried  on  by  memoranda  of  debts  and  claims, 
eventually  written  off  against  each  other  in  the  books  of 
bankers ;  seeing  that  as,  by  the  hypothesis,  no  man  will 
ever  issue  more  memoranda  of  debts  than  his  goods  and 
his  Maims  will  liquidate,  his  paper  will  pass  current  for 
whatever  it  represents :  coin  will  be  needed  only  as  a 
measure  of  value,  and  to  facilitate  those  small  transac- 
tions for  which  it  is  physically  the  most  convenient. 
These  we  take  to  be  self-evident  truths. 


320        STATE-TAMPEEINGS  'WITH  MONET  AND  BANKS. 

From  them  follows  the  corollary,  that  in  a  nation 
neither  wholly  honest  nor  wholly  dishonest,  theremay, 
and  eventually  will,  be  established  a  mixed  currency — a 
currency  partly  of  intrinsic  value,  and  partly  of  credit- 
value.  The  ratio  between  the  quantities  of  these  two — 
kinds  of  currency,  will  be  determined  by  a  combination 
of  several  causes. 

Supposing  that  there  is  no  legislative  meddling  to  dis- 
turb the  natural  balance,  it  is  clear  from  what  has  already 
been  said,  that,  fundamentallyj  the  proportion  of  coin  to 
paper  will  depend  on  the  average  conscientiousness  of  the 
people.  Daily  experience  must  ever  be  teaching  each  cit- 
izen, which  other  citizens  he  can  put  confidence  in,  and 
which  not.  Daily  experience  must  also  ever  be  teaching 
him  how  far  this  confidence  may  be  carried.  From  per 
sonal  experiment,  and  from  current  opinion  which  results 
from  the  experiments  of  others,  every  one  must  learn, 
more  or  less  truly,  what  credit  may  safely  be  given.  If 
all  find  that  their  neighbours  are  little  to  be  trusted,  but 
few  promises-to-pay  will  circulate.  And  the  circulation 
of  promises-to-pay  will  be  great,  if  all  find  that  the  fulfil- 
ment of  trading  engagements  is  tolerably  certain.  The 
degree  of  honesty  characterizing  a  community,  being  the 
first  regulator  of  a  credit-currency;  the  second  is  the  de- 
gree of  prudence. 

Other  things  equal,  it  is  manifest  that  among  a  san- 
guine, speculative  people,  promissory  payments  will  bo 
taken  more  readily,  and  will  therefore  circulate  more 
largely,  than  among  a  cautious  people.  Two  men  having 
exactly  the  same  experiences  of  mercantile  risks,  will,  un- 
der the  same  circumstances,  respectively  give  credit  and 
refuse  it,  if  they  are  respectively  rash  and  circumspect.  7 
And  two  nations  thus  contrasted  in  prudence,  will  be  sim- 
ilarly contrasted  in  the  relative  quantities  of  notes  and 
bills  in  circulation  among  them.    Nay,  they  will  be  more 


INFLUENCE  OF  MORAL  CAUSES.  321 

than  similarly  contrasted  in  this  respect ;  seeing  that  the 
prevailing  incautiousness,  besides  making  each  citizen  un- 
duly ready  to  give  credit,  will  also  produce  in  him  an 
undue  readiness  to  risk  his  own  capital  in  speculations, 
and  a  consequent  undue  demand  for  credit  from  other  citi- 
zens. There  will  be  both  an  increased  pressure  for  credit, 
and  a  diminished  resistance ;  and  therefore  a  more  than 
proportionate  excess  of  paper-currency.  Of  this  national 
characteristic  and  its  consequences,  we  have  a  conspicuous 
example  in  the  United  States.      " 

To  these  comparatively  permanent_moral  causes,  on 
which  the  ordinary  ratio  of  hypothetical  to  real  money  in 
a  community  depends,  have  to  be  added  certain  temporary 
moral  and  physical  causes,  which  produce  temporary  va- 
riations in  the  ratio.  The  prudence  of  any  people  is  liable 
to  more  or  less  fluctuation.  In  railway-manias  and  the 
like,  we  see  that  irrational  expectations  may  spread 
through  a  whole  nation,  and  lead  its  members  to  give  and 
take  credit  almost-  recklessly.  But  the  chief  causes  of 
temporary  variation  are  those  which  directly  affect  the 
quantity  of  available  capital.  Wars,  deficient  harvests, 
or  losses  consequent  on  the  misfortunes  of  other  nations, 
will,  by  impoverishing  the  community,  inevitably  lead  to 
an  increase  in  the  ratio  of  promissory  payments  to  actual 
payments.  For  what  must  be  done  by  the  citizen  disa- 
bled by  such  causes  from  meeting  his  engagements  ? — the 
shopkeeper  whose  custom  has  greatly  fallen  off  in  conse- 
quence of  the  high  price  of  bread ;  or  the  manufacturer 
whose  goods  lie  in  his  warerooms  unsaleable ;  or  the 
merchant  whose  foreign  correspondents  fail  him  ?  As  the 
proceeds  of  his  business  do  not  suffice  to  liquidate  the 
claims  on  him  that  are  falling  due,  he  is  compelled  either 
to  find  other  means  of  liquidating  them,  or  to  stop  pay 
ment.  Rather  than  stop  payment,  he  will,  of  course, 
make  temporary  sacrifices — will  give  high  terms  to  who- 
14* 


322        STATE-TAMPEEESTGS   WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

ever  will  furnish  him  with  the  desii-ed  means.  If,  by  de- 
positing securities  with  his  banker,  he  can  get  a  loan  at  an 
advanoed  rate  of  interest,  well.  If  not,  by  offering  an 
adequate  temptation,  he  may  mortgage  his  property  to 
some  one  having  good  credit ;  who  either  gives  bills,  or 
draws  on  his  banker  for  the  sum  agreed  on.  In  either 
case,  extra  promises  to  pay  are  issued ;  or,  if  the  difficulty 
is  met  by  accommodation-bills,  the  same  result  follows. 
And  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  citizens  obliged  to 
resort  to  one  or  other  of  these  expedients,  must  be  the  in- 
crease of  promissory  payments  in  circulation.  Reduce  the 
proposition  to  its  most  general  terms,  and  it  becomes  self- 
evident.  Thus : — All  bank-notes,  cheques,  bills  of  exchange, 
etc.,  are  so  many  memoranda  of  claims  /  no  matter  what 
may  be  the  technical  distinctions  among  them,  on  which 
upholders  of  the  "  currency  principle "  seek  to  establish 
their  dogma,  they  all  come  within  this  definition..' 

Under  the  ordinary  state  of  things,  the  amount  of 
available  wealth  in  the  hands,  or  at  the  command,  of  those 
concerned,  suffices  to  meet  these  claims  as  they  are  sever- 
ally presented  for  payment ;  and  they  are  paid  either  by 
equivalents  of  intrinsic  value,  as  coin,  or  by  giving  in 
place  of  them  other  memoranda  of  claims  on  somebody 
of  undoubted  solvency.  But  now  let  the  amount  of  avail- 
able wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  community  be  greatly 
diminished.  Suppose  a  large  portion  of  the  necessaries 
of  life,  or  coin,  which  is  the  most  exchangeable  equivalent 
of  such  necessaries,  has  been  sent  abroad  to  support  an 
army,  or  to  subsidize  foreign  states  ;  or,  suppose  that  there 
has  been  a  failure  in  the  crops  of  grain  or  potatoes.  Sup- 
pose, in  short,  that,  for  the  time  being,  the  nation  is  im- 
poverished. What  follows  ?  It  follows  that  a  proportion 
of  the  claims  cannot  be  liquidated.  And  what  must  hap- 
pen from  their  non-liquidation  ?  It  must  happen  that 
those  unable  to  liquidate  them  will  either  fail,  or  they  will 


INCREASINa  THE  MEMORANDA  OF  CLAIMS.  323 

redeem  them  by  directly  or  indirectly  giving  in  exchange 
certain  memoranda  of  claims  on  their  stock-in-trade,  houses, 
or  land.  That  is,  such  of  these  claims  as  the  deficient 
floating  capital  does  not  suffice  to  meet,  are  replaced  by 
claims  on  fixed  capital.  The  memoranda  of  claims  which 
should  have  (?^sappeared  by  liquidation,  reappear  in  a  new- 
form  ;  and  the  quantity  of  paper-currency  is  increased. 
If  the  war,  famine,  or  other  cause  of  impoverishment  con- 
tinues, the  process  is  repeated.  Those  who  have  no  fur- 
ther fixed  capital  to  mortgage,  become  bankrupt ;  while 
those  whose  fixed  capital  admits,  mortgage  still  further, 
and  still  further  increase  the  promissory  payments  in  cir- 
culation. Manifestly,  if  the  members  of  a  community 
whose  annual  returns  but  little  more  than  suffice  to  meet 
their  annual  debts,  suddenly  lose  part  of  their  annual  re- 
turns, they  must  become  proportionately  in  debt  to  each 
other;  and  the  documents  expressive  of  debt  must  be 
proportionately  multiplied. 

This  d  priori  conclusion  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
mercantile  experience.  The  last  hundred  years  have  fur- 
nished repeated  illustrations  of  its  truth.  After  the  enor- 
mous export  of  gold  in  l795-'6  for  war-loans  to  Germany, 
and  to  meet  bills  drawn  on  the  Treasury  by  British  agents 
abroad;  and  after  large  advances  made  under  a  moral 
compulsion  by  the  Bank  of  England  to  the  Government, 
there  followed  an  excessive  issue  of  bank-notes.  In 
1796-7,  there  were  failures  of  the  provincial  banks;  a 
panic  in  London  ;  a  run  on  the  nearly-exhausted  Bank  of 
England,  and  a  suspension  of  cash-payments — a  State- 
authorized  refusal  to  redeem  promises  to  pay.  In  1800, 
the  further  impoverishment  consequent  on  a  bad  harvest, 
joined  with  the  legalized  inconvertibility  of  bank-notes, 
entailed  so  great  a  multiplication  of  them  as  to  cause  their 
depreciation.  During  the  temporary  peace  of  1802,  the 
country  partly  recovered  itself,  and  the  Bank  of  England 


324       STATE-TAMPEEINGS  WITH   MONEY   AND  BANKS. 

would  have  liquidated  the  claims  on  it,  had  the  Govern- 
ment allowed.  On  the  subsequent  resumption  of  war,  the 
phenomenon  was  repeated :  as  in  later  times  it  has  been  on 
each  occasion  when  the  community,  carried  away  by  irra- 
tional hopes,  has  locked  up  an  undue  proportion  of  its  cap- 
ital in  permanent  works. 

Moreover,  we  have  still  more  conclusive  illustrations — 
illustrations  of  the  sudden  cessation  of  commercial  dis- 
tress and  bankruptcy,  resulting  from  a  sudden  increase  of 
credit-circulation.  When,  in  1793,  there  came  a  general 
crash,  mainly  due  to  an  unsafe  banking-system  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  provinces  in  consequence  of  the  Bank  of 
England  monopoly — when  the  pressure,  extending  to  Lon- 
don, became  so  great  as  to  alarm  the  Bank-directors  and 
to  cause  them  suddenly  to  restrict  their  issues,  thereby 
producing  a  frightful  multiplication  of  bankruptcies  ;  the 
Government  (to  mitigate  an  evil  indirectly  produced  by 
legislation)  determined  to  issue  Exchequer-Bills  to  such 
as  could  give  adequate  security.  That  is,  they  allowed 
hard-pressed  citizens  to  mortgage  their  fixed  capitals  for 
equivalents  of  State-promises  to  pay,  with  which  to  liqui- 
date the  demands  on  them.  The  effect  was  magical 
£2,202,000  only  of  Exchequer-Bills  were  required.  The 
consciousness  that  loans  could  be  had,  in  many  cases  pre- 
vented them  from  being  needed.  The  panic  quickly  sub- 
sided. And  all  the  loans  were  very  soon  repaid;  In 
1825,  again,  when  the  Bank  of  England,  after  having  in- 
tensified' a  panic  by  extreme  restriction  of  its  issues,  sud- 
denly changed  its  policy,  and  in  four  days  advanced 
£5,000,000  notes  on  all  sorts  of  securities,  the  panic  at 
once  ceased. 

And  now,  mark  two  important  truths.  As  just  im- 
plied, those  expansions  of  paper-circulation  which  natu- 
rally take  place  in  times  of  impoverishment  or  commercial 
difficulty,  are  highly  salutary.     This  issuing  of  securities 


SALUTARY   EXPANSION  OF  THE   CUEKENCY.  325 

for  future  payment  when  there  does  not  exist  the  where- 
with for  immediate  payment,  is  a  means  of  mitigating  na- 
tional disasters.  The  process  amounts  to  a  postponement 
of  trading-engagements  that  cannot  at  once  be  met.  And 
the  alternative  questions  to  be  asked  respecting  it  are — 
Shall  all  the  merchants,  manufacturers,  shopkeepers,  etc., 
who,  by  unwise  investments,  or  war,  or  famine,  or  great 
losses  abroad,  have  been  in  part  deprived  of  the  means  of 
meeting  the  claims  upon  them,  be  allowed  to  mortgage 
their  fixed  capital?  or,  by  being  debarred  from  issuing 
memoranda  of  claims  on  their  fixed  capital,  shall  they  be 
made  banknipts  ?  On  the  one  hand,  if  they  are  permitted 
to  avail  themselves  of  that  credit  which  their  fellow-citi- 
zens willingly  give  them  on  the  strength  of  the  proffered 
securities,  most  of  them  will  tide  over  their  difiiculties :  in 
virtue  of  that  accumulation  of  surplus  capital  ever  going 
on,  they  will  be  able,  by-and-by,  to  liquidate  their  debts 
in  full.  On  the  other  hand,  if,  as  they  must  else  be,  they 
are  forthwith  bankrupted,  carrying  with  them  others,  and 
these  again  others,  there  follows  a  disastrous  loss  to  all  the 
creditors  :  property  to  an  immense  amount  being  peremp- 
torily sold  at  a  time  when  there  can  be  comparatively  few 
able  to  buy,  must  go  at  a  great  sacrifice ;  and  those  who 
in  a  year  or  two  would  have  been  paid  in  full,  must  be 
content  with  10s.  in  the  pound.  Added  to  which  evil 
comes  the  still  greater  one — an  extensive  damage  to  the 
organization  of  society.  Numerous  importing,  producing, 
and  distributing  establishments  are  swept  away ;  tens  of 
thousands  of  their  dependents  are  left  without  work ;  and 
before  the  industiial  fabric  can  be  repaired,  a  long  time 
must  elapse,  much  labour  must  lie  idle,  and  great  distress 
be  borne.  Between  these  alternatives,  who,  then,  can 
pause  ?  Let  this  spontaneous  remedial  process  follow  its 
own  course,  and  the  evil  will  either  be  in  great  measure 
eventually  escaped,  or  will  be  spread  little  by  little  over  a 


326       8TATE-TAMPEEING8   WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

considerable  period.  Stop  this  remedial  process,  and  the 
whole  evil,  falling  at  once  on  society,  will  bring  wide- 
spread ruin  and  misery. 
/  The  second  of  these  important  truths,  is,  that  an  ex- 
panded circulation  of  promises  to  pay,  caused  by  absolute 
or  relative  impoverishment,  contracts  to  its  normal  limits 
as  fast  as  the  need  for  expansion  disappears.  '  For  the 
conditions  of  the  case  imply,  that  all  who  have  mortgaged 
their  fixed  capitals  to  obtain  the  means  of  meeting  their 
engagements,  have  done  so  on  very  unfavourable  terms ; 
and  are  therefore  under  a  strong  stimulus  to  pay  off  their 
mortgages  as  quickly  as  possible.  Every  one  who,  at  a 
time  of  commercial  pressure,  gets  a  loan  from  a  bank,  has 
to  give  high  interest.  Hence,  as  fast  as  prosperity  re- 
turns, and  his  profits  accumulate,  he  gladly  escapes  this 
heavy  tax  by  repaying  the  loan  :  in  doing  which  he  takes 
back  to  the  bank  as  large  a  number  of  its  promises  to  pay 
as  he  originally  received;  and  so  diminishes  the  note- 
circulation  as  much  as  his  original  transaction  had  in- 
creased it.  Considered  apart  from  technical  distinctions, 
a  banker  performs,  in  such  case,  the  function  of  an  agent 
in  whose  name  traders  issue  negotiable  memoranda  of 
claims  on  their  estates.  The  agent  is  already  known  to 
the  public  as  one  who  issues  memoranda  of  claims  on  cap- 
ital that  is  partly  floating  and  partly  fixed — memoranda 
of  claims  that  have  an  established  character,  and  are  con- 
venient in  their  amounts.  What  the  agent  does  under 
the  circumstances  specified,  is  to  issue  more  such  memo- 
randa of  claims,  on  the  security  of  more  fixed,  and  par- 
tially-fixed, capital  put  in  his  possession.  His  clients  hy- 
pothecate their  estates  through  the  banker,  instead  of  do- 
ing it  in  their  own  names,  simply  because  of  the  facilities 
which  he  has  and  which  they  have  not.  And  as  the 
banker  requires  to  be  paid  for  his  agency  and  his  risk,  his 
clients  redeem  their  estates,  and  close  these  special  trans- 


MIXED   CUEEENCY   SELF-ADJUSTINa.  327 

actions  with  him,  as  quickly  as  they  can :  thereby  dimin- 
ishing the  amount  of  credit-currency. 

.  Thus  we  see  that  the  balance  of  a  mixed  currency  is, 
under  all  circumstances,  self-adjusting.  Supposing  con- 
siderations of  physical  convenience  out  of  the  question, 
the  average  ratio  of  paper  to  coin  is  primarily  dependent 
on  the  average  trustworthiness  of  the  people,  and  seconda- 
rily dependent  on  their  average  prudence.  When,  in  con- 
sequence of  unusual  prosperity,  there  is  an  unusual  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  mercantile  transactions,  there  is  a 
corresponding  increase  in  the  quantity  of  currency,  both 
metallic  and  paper,  to  meet  the  requirement.  And  when 
from  war,  famine,  or  over-investment,  the  available  wealth 
in  the  hands  of  citizens  is  insufficient  to  pay  their  debts 
to  each  other,  the  memoranda  of  debts  in  circulation  ac- 
quire an  increased  ratio  to  the  quantity  of  gold :  to  de- 
crease again  as  fast  as  the  excess  of  debts  can  be  liqui- 
dated. 

That  these  self-regulating  processes  act  but  imperfectly, 
is  doubtless  true.  "With  an  imperfect  humanity,  they  can- 
not act  otherwise  than  imperfectly.  People  who  are  dis- 
honest, or  rash,  or  stupid,  will  inevitably  suffer  the  penal- 
ties of  dishonesty,  or  rashness,  or  stupidity.  If  any  think 
that  by  some  patent  legislative  mechanism,  a  society  of 
bad  citizens  can  be  made  to  work  together  as  well  as  a 
society  of  good  ones,  we  shall  not  take  pains  to  show 
them  the  contrary.'  If  any  think  that  the  dealings  of  men 
deficient  in  uprightness  and  foresight,  may  be  so  regula- 
ted by  cunningly-devised  Acts  of  Parliament,  as  to  secure 
the  effects  of  uprightness  and  foresight,  we  have  nothing 
to  say  to  them.  Or  if  there  are  any  (and  we  fear  there 
are  numbers)  who  think  that  in  times  of  commercial  diffi- 
culty, resulting  from  impoverishment  or  other  natural 
causes,  the  evil  can  be  staved-off  by  some  ministerial 
sleight  of  hand,  we  despair  of  convincing  them  that  the 


328       STATE-TAMPERINGS  WITH  MONEY  AITO  BANKS. 

thing  is  impossible.  See  it  or  not,  however,  the  truth  is, 
that  the  State  can  do  none  of  these  things.  As  we  shall 
show,  the  State  can,  and  sometimes  does,  jt?roc?wce  com- 
mercial disasters.  As  we  .shall  also  show,  it  can,  and 
sometimes  does,  exacerbate  the  commercial  disasters  oth- 
erwise produced.  But  while  it  can  create  and  can  make 
worse,  it  cannot  prevent. 

All  which  the  State  has  to  do  in  the  matter,  is  to  dis- 
charge its  ordinary  office — to  administer  justice.  The  en- 
forcement of  contracts  is  one  of  the  functions  included  in 
its  general  function  of  maintaining  the  rights  of  citizens. 
And  among  other  contracts  which  it  is  called  on  to  en- 
force, are  the  contracts  expressed  on  credit-documents — 
hills  of  exchange,  cheques,  bank-notes.  If  any  one  issues 
a  promise-to-pay,  either  on  demand  or  at  specified  date, 
and  does  not  fulfil  that  promise,  the  State,  when  appealed 
to  by  the  creditor,  is  bound  in  its  protective  capacity  to 
obtain  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  at  whatever  cost  to  the 
debtor ;  or  such  partial  fulfilment  of  it  as  his  effects  suf- 
fice for.  The  State's  duty  in  the  case  of  the  currency,  as 
in  other  cases,  is  sternly  to  threaten  the  penalty  of  bank- 
ruptcy on  all  who  make  engagements  which  they  cannot 
meet ;  and  sternly  to  inflict  the  penalty  when  called  on  by 
those  aggrieved.  If  it  falls  short  of  this,  mischief  ensues. 
If  it  exceeds  this,  mischief  ensues.  Let  us  glance  at  the 
facts. 

Had  we  space  to  trace  in  detail  the  history  of  the  Bank 
of  England — to  show  how  the  privileges  contained  in  its 
first  charter  were  bribes  given  by  a  distressed  Govern- 
ment in  want  of  a  large  loan — ^how,  soon  afterwards,  the 
law  which  forbad  a  partnership  of  more  than  six  persons 
from  becoming  bankers,  was  passed  to  prevent  the  issue 
of  notes  by  the  South-Sea  Company,  and  so  to  preserve 
the  Bank-monopoly — how  the  continuance  of  State-favours 


BANK  OF  ENGLAND  MONOPOLY.  329 

to  the  Bank-corresponded  with  the  continuance  of  the 
Bank's  claims  on  the  State  ;  we  should  see  that,  from  the 
first,  banking-legislation  has  been  an  organized  injustice. 
But  passing  over  earlier  periods,  let  us  begin  with  the 
events  that  closed  the  last  century.  Our  rulers  of  that 
day  had  entered  into  a  war — whether  with  adequate  rea- 
son, needs  not  here  be  discussed.  They  had  lent  vast 
sums  of  gold  to  their  allies.  They  had  demanded  large 
advances  from  the  Bank  of  England,  which  the  Bank  durst 
not  refuse.  They  had  thus  necessitated  an  excessive  issue 
of  notes  by  the  Bank.  That  is,  they  had  so  greatly  di- 
minished the  floating  capital  of  the  community,  that  en- 
gagements could  not  be  met,  and  an  immense  number  of 
promises-to-pay  took  the  place  of  actual  payments.  Soon 
after,  the  fulfilment  of  these  promises  became  so  difficult 
that  it  was  forbidden  by  law ;  that  is,  cash-payments  were 
suspended.  Now  for  these  results — for  the  national  im- 
poverishment and  consequent  abnormal  condition  of  the 
currency,  the  State  was  responsible. 

How  much  of  the  blame  lay  with  the  governing  classes, 
and  how  much  with  the  nation  at  large,  we  do  not  pretend 
to  say.  What  it  concerns  us  here  to  note,  is,  that  the 
calamity  arose  from  the  acts  of  the  ruling  power.  When, 
again,  in  1802,  after  a  short  peace,  the  available  capital  of 
the  community  had  so  far  increased  that  the  redemption 
of  promises-to-pay  became  possible,  and  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land was  anxious  to  begin  redeeming  them,  the  legislature 
interposed  its  veto ;  and  so  continued  the  evils  of  an  in- 
convertible paper-cuiTcncy  after  they  would  naturally  have 
ceased.  ^  Still  more  disastrous,  however,  were  the  results  that 
by-and-by  ensued  from  State-meddlings.  Cash-payments 
liaving  been  suspended — the  Government,  instead  of  en- 
forcing all  contracts,  having  temporarily  cancelled  a  great 
part  of  them,  by  saying  to  every  banker,  "  You  shall  not 
be  called  on  to  liquidate  in  coin  the  promises-to-pay  which 


330        STATE-TAMPEEINGS  WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

you  issue,"  the  natural  checks  to  the  multiplication  of  prom- 
ises-to-pay,  disappeared.  "What  followed?  Banks  being 
no  longer  required  to  cash  their  notes  in  coin,  and  easily 
obtaining  from  the  Bank  of  England  supplies  of  its  notes 
in  exchange  for  fixed  securities,  were  ready  to  make  ad- 
vances to  almost  any  extent.  Not  being  obliged  to  raise 
their  rate  of  discount  in  consequence  of  the  diminution  of 
their  available  capital,  and  reaping  a  profit  by  every  loan 
(of  notes)  made  on  fixed  capital,  there  arose  both  an  ab- 
normal facility  of  borrowing,  and  an  abnormal  desire  to 
lend.  Thus  were  fostered  the  wild  speculations  of  1809 — 
speculations  that  were  not  only  thus  fostered,  but  were  in 
great  measure  caused  by  the  previous  over-issue  of  notes ; 
which,  by  further  exaggerating  the  natural  rise  of  prices, 
increased  the  apparent  profitableness  of  investments. 

And  all  this,  be  it  remembered,  took  place  at  a  time 
when  there  should  have  been  rigid  economy — at  a  time 
of  impoverishment  consequent  on  continued  war — at  a 
time  when,  but  for  law-produced  illusions,  there  would 
have  been  commercial  straitness  and  a  corresponding  care- 
fulness. Just  wh^n  its  indebtedness  was  unusually  great, 
the  community  was  induced  still  further  to  increase  its 
indebtedness.  <  Clearly,  then,  the  progressive  accumula- 
tion and  depreciation  of  promises-to-pay,  and  the  commer- 
cial disasters  which  finally  resulted  from  it  in  1814-'15- 16, 
when  ninety  provincial  banks  were  broken  and  more  dis- 
solved, were  State-produced  evils :  partly  due  to  a  war 
which,  whether  necessary  or  not,  was  carried  on  by  the 
Government,  and  greatly  exacerbated  by  the  currency- 
regulations  which  that  Government  had  made.    ^ 

Before  passing  to  more  recent  facts,  let  us  parentheti- 
cally notice  the  similarly-caused  degradation  of  the  cur- 
rency which  had  previously  arisen  in  Ireland.  When 
examined  by  a  parliamentary  committee  in  1804,  Mr.  Col- 
ville,  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  stated 


CASE  OF  THE  BANK  OF  IRELAND.        331 

that  before  the  passing  of  the  Irish  Bank-Restriction-Bill 
— the  bill  by  which  cash-payments  were  suspended — the 
directors  habitually  met  any  unusual  demand  for  gold,  by 
diminishing  their  issues.  That  is  to  say,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  business,  they  raised  their  rate  of  discount 
whenever  the  demand  enabled  them,  and  so,  both  increased 
their  profits  and  warded  off  the  danger  of  bankniptcy. 
During  this  unregulated  period,  their  note-circulation  was 
between  £600,000  and  £700,000.  But  as  soon  as  they 
were  guaranteed  by  law  against  the  danger  of  bankrupt- 
cy, their  circulation  began  rapidly  to  increase,  and  very 
soon  reached  £3,000,000.  The  results,  as  proved  before 
the  committee,  were  these :  The  exchange  with  England 
became  greatly  depressed ;  nearly  all  the  good  specie  was 
exported  to  England ;  it  was  replaced  in  Dublin  (where 
small  notes  could  not  be  issued)  by  a  base  coinage,  adul- 
terated to  the  extent  of  fifty  per  cent.,  and  elsewhere  it 
was  replaced  by  notes  payable  at  twenty-one  days'  date, 
issued  by  all  sorts  of  persons,  for  sums  down  even  as  low 
as  sixpence. 

And  this  excessive  multiplication  of  small  notes  was 
necessitated  by  the  impossibility  of  otherwise  carrying  on 
retail  trade,  after  the  disappearance  of  the  silver  coinage. 
For  these  disastrous  effects,  then,  legislation  was  responsi- 
ble. The  swarms  of  "  silver-notes"  resulted  from  the  ex- 
portation of  silver ;  the  exportation  of  silver  was  due  to 
the  great  depression  of  the  exchange  with  England ;  this 
great  depression  arose  from  the  excessive  issue  of  notes 
by  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  and  this  excessive  issue  followed 
from  their  legalized  inconvertibility.  Yet,  though  these 
facts  were  long  ago  established  by  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  defenders  of  the  "  currency-princi- 
ple" are  actually  blind  enough  to  cite  this  multiplication 
of  sixpenny-promises-to-pay,  as  proving  the  evils  of  an 
nnregidated  currency  I 


332       STATE-TAMPERINGS  WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

Returning^  now  to  the  case  of  the  Bank  of  England, 
let  us  pass  at  once  to  the  Act  of  1844.  While  still  a  pro- 
tectionist— ^^while  still  a  believer  in  the  beneficence  of  law 
as  a  controller  of  commerce — Sir  Robert  Peel  undertook 
to  stop  the  recurrence  of  monetary  crises,  like  those  of 
1825,  1836,  and  1839.  Overlooking  the  truth  that,  when 
not  cattsed  by  the  meddlings  of  legislators,  a  monetary 
crisis  is  due,  either  to  an  absolute  impoverishment,  or  to  a 
relative  impoverishment  consequent  on  speculative  over- 
investment; and  that  for  the  bad  season  or  the  impru- 
dence causing  this,  there  is  no  remedy ;  he  boldly  pro- 
claimed that  "  it  is  better  to  prevent  the  paroxysm  than  to 
excite  it ;''''  and  he  brought  forward  the  Bank-Act  of  1844, 
as  the  means  of  prevention.  How  merciless  has  been 
Nature's  criticism  on  this  remnant  of  Protectionism,  we 
all  know.  The  monetary  sliding-scale  has  been  as  great  a 
failure  as  its  prototype.  Within  three  years  arose  one  of 
these  crises  which  were  to  have  been  prevented.  Within 
another  ten  years  has  arisen  a  second  of  these  crises. 
And  on  both  occasions  this  intended  safeguard  has  so  in- 
tensified the  evil,  that  a  temporary  repeal  of  it  has  been 
imperative. 

We  should  have  thought  that,  even  without  facts, 
every  one  might  have  seen  that  it  is  impossible,  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  to  prevent  imprudent  people  from  doing  im- 
prudent things ;  and,  if  facts  were  needed,  w6  should 
have  thought  that  our  commercial  history  up  to  1844  sup- 
plied a  sufficiency.  But  a  superstitious  faith  in  State-ordi- 
nances is  regardless  of  such  facts.  And  we  doubt  not 
that  even  now,  though  there  have  been  two  glaring  fail- 
ures of  this  professed  check  on  over-speculation — though 
the  evidence  conclusively  shows  that  the  late  commercial 
catastrophes  have  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
issue  of  bank-notes,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Western 
Bank  of  Scotland,  occurred  along  with  diminished  issues — 


CRISIS  IN   HAMBURGH.  333 

and  though  in  Hamburgh,  where  the  "  currency-princi- 
ple" has  been  rigidly  carried  out  to  the  very  letter,  there 
has  been  a  worse  crisis  than  anywhere  else ;  yet  there  will 
remain  plenty  of  believers  in  the  efficiency  of  Sir  R.  Peel's 
prophylactic. 

But,  as  already  said,  the  measure  has  not  only  failed  : 
it  has  made  worse  the  panics  it  was  to  have  warded  off. 
And  it  was  sure  to  do  this.  As  shown  at  the  outset,  the 
multiplication  of  promises-to-pay  that  occurs  at  a  period 
of  impoverishment  caused  by  war,  famine,  over-invest- 
ment, or  losses  abroad,  is  a  salutary  process  of  mitigation 
— is  a  mode  of  postponing  actual  payments  till  actual  pay- 
ments are  possible — is  a  preventive  of  wholesale  bank- 
ruptcy— is  a  spontaneous  act  of  self-preservation.  We 
pointed  out,  not  only  that  this  is  an  d  priori  conclusion, 
but  that  many  facts  in  our  own  mercantile  history  illus- 
trate at  once  the  naturalness,  the  benefits,  the  necessity  of 
it.  And  if  this  conclusion  needs  enforcing  by  further  evi- 
dence, we  have  it  in  the  recent  events  at  Hamburgh.  In 
that  city,  there  are  no  notes  in  circulation  but  such  as  are 
represented  by  actual  equivalents  of  bullion  or  jewels  in 
the  bank :  no  one  is  allowed,  as  with  us,  to  obtain  bank- 
promises-to-pay  in  return  for  securities.  Hence  it  resulted 
that  when  the  Hamburgh  merchants,  lacking  their  remit- 
tances from  abroad,  were  suddenly  deprived  of  the  where- 
with to  meet  their  engagements,  and  were  prevented  by 
law  from  getting  bank-promises-to-pay  by  pawning  their 
estates ;  bankruptcy  swept  them  away  wholesale.  And 
what  finally  happened  ?  To  prevent  universal  ruin,  the 
Government  was  obliged  to  decree  that  all  bills  of  ex- 
change coming  due,  should  have  a  month's  grace ;  and 
that  there  should  be  immediately  formed  a  State-Discount- 
Bank — an  office  for  issuing  State-promises-to-pay  in  return 
for  securities.  That  is,  having  first  by  its  restrictive  law 
ruined  a  host  of  merchants,  the  Government  was  obliged 


834        STATE-TAMPEEINGS   WITH   MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

to  legalize  that  postponement  of  payments,  which,  but  for 
its  law,  would  have  spontaneously  taken  place. 

With  such  further  confirmation  of  an  d  priori  conclu- 
sion, can  it  be  doubted  that  our  late  commercial  difficul- 
ties were  intensified  by  the  measure  of  1844  ?  Is  it  not, 
indeed,  notorious  in  the  City,  that  the  progressively-in- 
creasing demand  for  accommodation,  was  in  great  part 
due  to  the  conviction  that,  in  consequence  of  the  Bank- 
Act,  there  would  shortly  be  no  accommodation  at  all? 
Does  not  every  London  merchant  know  that  his  neigh- 
bours who  had  bills  coming  due,  and  who  saw  that  by  the 
time  they  were  due  the  Bank  would  discount  only  at  still 
higher  rates,  or  not  at  all,  decided  to  lay  in  beforehand 
the  means  of  meeting  those  bills  ?  Is  it  not  an  established 
fact,  that  the  hoarding  thus  induced,  not  only  rendered 
the  pressure  on  the  Bank  greater  than  it  would  otherwise 
have  been,  but,  by  taking  both  gold  and  notes  out  of  cir- 
culation, made  the  Bank's  issues  temporarily  useless  to  the. 
general  public  ?  Did  it  not  happen  in  this  case,  as  in  1 793 
and  1825,  that  when  at  last  restriction  was  removed,  the 
mere  consciousness  that  loans  could  be  had,  itself  prevented 
them  from  being  required  ?  And,  indeed,  is  not  the  sim- 
ple fact  that  the  panic  quickly  subsided  when  the  Act  was 
suspended,  sufficient  proof  that  the  Act  had,  in  great 
measure,  produced  it. 

See,  then,  for  what  we  have  to  thank  legislative  med- 
dling. During  ordinary  times  Sir  R.  Peel's  Act,  by  oblig- 
ing the  Bank  of  England,  and  occasionally  provincial 
banks,  to  keep  more  gold  than  they  would  otherwise  have 
kept  (and  if  it  has  not  done  this  it  has  done  nothing),  has 
inflicted  a  tax  on  the  nation  to  the  extent  of  the  interest 
on  such  portion  of  the  gold-currency  as  was  in  excess  of 
the  need  :  a  tax  which,  in  the  course  of  the  last  thirteen 
years,  has  probably  amounted  to  some  millions.  And 
then,  on  the  two  occasions  when  there  have  arisen  the 


DEAINAGE  OF   GOLD.  335 

crises  that  were  to  have  been  prevented,  the  Act,  after 
having  intensified  the  pressure,  made  bankrupt  a  great 
number  of  respectable  firms  that  would  else  have  stood, 
and  increased  the  distress  not  only  of  the  trading  but  of 
the  working  population ;  has  been  twice  abandoned  at  the 
moment  when  its  beneficence  was  to  have  been  conspic- 
uous. It  has  been  a  cost,  a  mischief,  and  a  failure.  Yet 
such  is  the  prevailing  delusion,  that,  judging  from  appear- 
ances, it  will  be  maintained  ! 

*'  But,"  ask  our  opponents,  "  shall  the  Bank  be  allowed 
to  let  gold  drain  out  of  the  country  without  check  ?  Shall 
it  have  permission  to  let  its  reserve  of  gold  diminish  so 
greatly  as  to  risk  the  convertibility  of  its  notes  ?  Shall  it 
be  enabled  recklessly  to  increase  its  issues,  and  so  produce 
a  depreciated  paper-currency?" 

Really,  in  these  Free-trade  days,  it  seems  strange  to 
have  to  answer  questions  like  these ;  and,  were  it  not  for 
the  confusion  of  facts  and  ideas  that  legislation  has  pro- 
duced, it  would  be  inexcusable  to  ask  them. 

/JLn  the  first  place,  the  common  notion  that  the  draining 
of  gold  out  of  the  country  is  intrinsically,  and  in  all  cases, 
an  evil,  is  nothing  but  a  political  superstition — a  supersti- 
tion in  part  descended  from  the  antique  fallacy  that  money 
is  the  only  wealth,  and  in  part  from  the  maxims  of  an  ar- 
tificial, law-produced  state  of  things,  under  which  the  ex- 
portation of  gold  really  was  a  sign  of  a  corrupted  cur- 
rency :  we  mean,  during  the  suspension  of  cash-payments. 
Law  having  cancelled  millions  of  contracts  which  it  was 
its  duty  to  enforce— law  having  absolved  bankers  from 
liquidating  their  promises  in  coin,  having  rendered  it  need- 
less to  keep  a  stock  of  coin  with  which  to  liquidate  them, 
and  having  thus  taken  away  that  natural  check  which 
prevents  the  over-issue  and  depreciation  of  notes — law 
having  partly  suspended  that  home  demand  for  gold  which 
ordinarily  competes  with   and  balances  the  foreign  de- 


336        STATE-TAMPEKINGS   WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

mand,  there  resulted  an  abnormal  exportation  of  gold.  '^ 
By-and-by,  it  was  seen  that  this  efflux  of  gold  was  a  con- 
sequence of  the  over-issue  of  notes ;  and  that  the  accom- 
panying high  price  of  gold,  as  paid  for  in  notes,  proved 
the  depreciation  of  notes.  And  then  it  became  an  estab- 
lished doctrine,  that  an  adverse  state  of  the  foreign  ex- 
changes, indicating  a  drain  of  gold,  was  significant  of  an 
excessive  circulation  of  notes  ;  and  that  the  issue  of  notes 
should  be  regulated  by  the  state  of  the  exchanges. 

This  unnatural  condition  of  the  currency  having  con- 
tinued for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  concomitant  doc- 
trine rooted  itself  in  the  general  mind.  And  noAV  mark 
one  of  the  multitudinous  evils  of  legislative  meddling. 
This  artificial  test,  good  only  for  an  artificial  state,  has 
survived  the  return  to  a  natural  state,  and  men's  ideas  - 
about  currency  have  been  reduced  by  it  to  chronic  confu- 
sion. 

The  truth  is,  that  while,  during  a  legalized  inconverti- 
bility of  bank-notes,  an  efflux  of  gold  may,  and  often  does, 
indicate  an  excessive  issue  of  bank-notes ;  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  an  efflux  of  gold  has  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  the  issue  of  bank-notes,  but  is  determined  by  purely 
mercantile  causes.  And  the  truth  is,  that  so  far  from  an 
efflux  of  gold  thus  brought  about  by  mercantile  causes, 
being  an  evil,  it  is  a  good.  Leaving  out  of  the  question, 
as  of  course  we  must,  such  exportations  of  gold  as  take 
place  for  the  support  of  armies  abroad,  the  cause  of  efflux 
is  either  an  actual  plethora  of  all  commodities,  gold  in- 
cluded, which  results  in  gold  being  sent  out  of  the  coun- 
tiy  for  the  purpose  of  foreign  investment,  or  else  an  abun- 
dance of  gold  as  compared  with  other  leading  commodi- 
ties. And  while,  in  this  last  case,  the  efflux  of  gold  indi- 
cates some  absolute  or  relative  impoverishment  of  the  na- 
tion, it  is  a  means  of  mitigating  the  bad  consequences  of 
that  impoverishment. 


GOLD  AS  A  COMMODITY.  33Y 

Consider  the  question  as  one  of  political  economy,  and 
this  truth  becomes  obvious.  Thus :  The  nation  habitually 
requires  for  use  and  consumption  certain  quantities  of 
commodities,  of  which  gold  is  one.  These  commodities 
are  severally  and  collectively  liable  to  fall  short,  either 
from  deficient  harvests,  from  waste  in  war,  from  losses 
abroad,  or  from  too  great  a  diversion  of  labour  or  capital 
in  some  special  direction.  When  a  scarcity  of  some  chief 
commodity  or  necessary  occurs,  what  is  the  remedy  ?  The 
commodity  of  which  there  is  an  excess  (or  if  none  is  in 
excess,  then  that  which  can  best  be  spared)  is  exported  in 
exchange  for  an  additional  supply  of  the  deficient  com- 
modity. And,  indeed,  the  whole  of  our  foreign  trade, 
alike  in  ordinary  and  extraordinary  times,  consists  in  this 
process.  But  when  it  happens  either  that  the  commodity 
which  we  can  best  spare  is  not  wanted  abroad,  or  (as  re- 
cently) that  a  chief  foreign  customer  is  temporarily  disa- 
bled from  buying,  or  that  the  commodity  which  we  can 
best  spare  is  gold,  then  gold  itself  is  exported  in  exchange 
for  the  thing  which  we  most  want.  ^Whatever  form  the 
transaction  takes,  it  is  nothing  but  bringing  the  supplies 
of  various  commodities  into  harmony  with  the  demands 
for  them.  The  fact  that  gold  is  exported,  is  simply  a 
proof  that  the  need  for  gold  is  less  than  the  need  for  other 
things.  Under  such  circumstances  an  efflux  of  gold  will 
continue,  and  ought  to  continue,  until  other  things  have 
become  relatively  so  abundant,  and  gold  relatively  so 
scarce,  that  the  demand  for  gold  is  equal  to  other  demands. 
And  he  who  would  prevent  this  process,  is  about  as  wise 
as  the  miser,  who,  finding  his  house  without  food,  chooses 
to  starve  rather  than  draw  upon  his  purse. 

^  The  second  question — "  Shall  the  Bank  have  permission 

to  let  its  reserve  of  gold  diminish  so  greatly  as  to  risk  the 

convertibility  of  its  notes?"  is  not  more  profound  than 

the  first,    it  may  fitly  be  answered  by  the  more  general 

15 


338        STATE-TAMPEKINGS  WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

question — "Shall  the  merchant,  the  manufacturer,  or  the 
shopkeeper,  be  allowed  so  to  invest  his  capital  as  to  risk 
the  fulfilment  of  his  engagements  ?  "  If  the  answer  to  the 
first  be  "  No,"  it  must  be  " No"  to  the  second.  If  to  the 
second  it  be  "Yes,"  it  must  be  "Yes"  to  the  first.  Any 
one  who  proposed  that  the  State  should  oversee  the  trans- 
actions of  every  trader,  so  as  to  insure  his  ability  to  cash 
all  demands  as  they  fell  due,  might  with  consistency  argue 
that  bankers  should  be  under  like  control.  But  while  no 
one  has  the  folly  to  contend  for  the  one,  nearly  all  contend 
for  the  other.  One  would  think  that  the  banker  acquired, 
in  virtue  of  his  occupation,  some  abnormal  desire  to  ruin 
himself — ^that  while  traders  in  other  things  are  restrained 
by  a  wholesome  dread  of  bankruptcy,  traders  in  capital 
have  a  longing  to  appear  in  the  Gazette^  which  law  alone 
can  prevent  them  from  gratifying !  Surely  the  moral 
checks  which  act  on  other  men  will  act  on  bankers.  And 
if  these  moral  checks  do  not  suffice  to  produce  perfect  se- 
curity, we  have  ample  proof  that  no  cunning  legislative 
checks  will  supply  their  place.  The  current  notion  that 
bankers  can,  and  will,  if  allowed,  issue  notes  to  any  extent, 
is  one  of  the  absurdest  illusions — an  illusion,  however, 
which  would  never  have  arisen  but  for  the  vicious  over- 
issues induced  by  law. 

The  truth  is,  that  in  the  first  place,  a  banker  cannot 
increase  his  issue  of  notes  at  will :  it  has  been  proved  by 
the  unanimous  testimony  of  all  bankers  who  have  been 
examined  before  successive  parliamentary  committees,  that 
"  the  amount  of  their  issues  is  exclusively  regulated  by 
the  extent  of  local  dealings  and  expenditure  in  their  re- 
spective districts;"  and  that  any  notes  issued  in  excess  of 
the  demand  are  "  immediately  returned  to  them."  And 
the  truth  is,  in  the  second  place,  that  a  banker  will  not,  on 
the  average  of  cases,  issue  more  notes  than  in  his  judg- 
ment it  is  safe  to  issue ;  seeing  that  if  his  promises-to-pay 


THE  BUGBEAE  OF  DEPRECIATION.        339 

in  circulation,  are  greatly  in  excess  of  his  available  means 
of  paying  them,  he  runs  an  imminent  risk  of  having  to 
stop  payment — a  result,  of  which  he  has  no  less  a  horror 
than  other  men.  If  facts  are  needed  in  proof  of  this,  they 
are  furnished  by  the  history  of  both  the  Bank  of  England 
and  the  Bank  of  Ireland ;  which,  before  they  were  de- 
bauched by  the  State,  habitually  regulated  their  issues 
according  to  their  stock  of  bullion,  and  would  probably 
always  have  been  still  more  careful,  but  for  the  conscious- 
ness that  there  was  the  State-credit  to  fall  back  upon. 

The  third  question — "  Shall  the  Bank  be  allowed  to 
issue  notes  in  such  numbers  as  to  cause  their  deprecia- 
tion ?"  has,  in  effect,  been  answered  in  answering  the  first 
two.  There  can  be  no  depreciation  of  notes  so  long  as 
they  are  exchangeable  for  gold  on  demand.  And  so  long 
as  the  State,  in  discharge  of  its  duty,  insists  on  the  fulfil- 
ment of  contracts,  the  alternative  of  bankruptcy  must 
ever  be  a  restraint  on  such  over-issue  of  notes  as  endangers 
that  exchangeability.  The  truth  is,  that  the  bugbear  of 
depreciation  is  one  that  would  have  been  unknown  but  for 
the  sins  of  governments.  ■  In  the  case  of  America,  where 
there  have  been  occasional  depreciations,  the  sin  has  been 
a  sin  of  omission :  the  State  has  not  enforced  the  fulfil- 
ment of  contracts — has  not  forthwith  bankrupted  those 
who  failed  to  cash  their  notes ;  and,  if  accounts  are  true, 
has  allowed  those  to  be  mobbed  who  brought  back  far- 
wandering  notes  for  payment.*  In  all  other  cases,  the  sin 
has  been  a  sin  of  commission.  The  depreciated  paper- 
currency  in  France,  during  the  revolution,  was  a  State- 
currency.  The  depreciated  paper-currencies  of  Austria 
and  Russia,  have  been  State-currencies.  And  the  only 
depreciated  paper-currency  we  have  known,  has  been  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  a  State-currency.     It  was  the 

*  This  was  written  in  1868 ;  when  "  greenbacks  "  were  unknown. 


340        STATE-TAMPEEINGS   WITH  MONET  AND  BANKS. 

State  which,  in  1195-'6,  forced  upon  the  Bank  of  England 
that  excessive  issue  of  notes  which  led  to  the  suspension 
of  cash-payments.  It  was  the  State  which,  in  1 802,  for- 
bad the  resumption  of  cash-payments,  when  the  Bank  of 
England  wished  to  resume  them.  It  was  the  State  which, 
during  a  quarter  of  a  century,  maintained  that  suspension 
of  cash-payments  from  which  the  excessive  multiplication 
and  depreciation  of  notes  resulted.  The  entire  corruption 
was  entailed  by  State-expenditure,  and  established  by 
State-warrant.  Yet  now,  the  State  affects  a  virtuous  hor- 
ror of  the  crime  committed  at  its  instigation  !  Having 
contrived  to  shuffle-off  the  odium  on  to  the  shoulders  of 
its  tools,  the  State  gravely  lectures  the  banking-commu- 
nity upon  its  guilt ;  and  with  sternest  face  passes  meas- 
ures to  prevent  it  from  sinning  ! 

We  contend,  then,  that  neither  to  restrain  the  efflux 
of  gold,  nor  to  guard  against  the  over-issue  of  bank-notes, 
is  legislative  interference  warranted.  If  Government  will 
promptly  execute  the  law  against  all  defaulters,  the  self- 
interest  of  bankers  and  traders  will  do  the  rest :  such 
evils  as  would  still  result  from  mercantile  dishonesties  and 
imprudences,  being  evils  which  legal  regulation  may  aug- 
ment but  cannot  prevent.  Let  the  Bank  of  England,  in 
common  with  every  other  bank,  sunply  consult  its  own 
safety  and  its  own  profits,  and  there  will  result  just  as 
much  check  as  should  be  put,  on  the  efflux  of  gold  or  the 
circulation  of  paper  ;  and  the  only  check  that  can  be  put 
on  the  doings  of  speculators.  Whatever  leads  to  unusual 
draughts  on  the  resources  of  banks,  immediately  causes  a 
rise  in  the  rate  of  discount— a  rise  dictated  both  by  the 
wish  to  make  increased  profits,  and  the  wish  to  avoid  a 
dangerous  decrease  of  resources.  This  raised  rate  of  dis- 
count prevents  the  demand  from  being  so  great  as  it  would 
else  have  been— alike  checks  undue  expansion  of  the  note- 
circulation  ;  stops  speculators  from  making  further  engage- 


SALUTARY  EFFECTS   OF  A  CRISIS.  341 

ments,  and,  if  gold  is  being  exported,  diminishes  the  profit 
of  exportation.  Successive  rises  successively  increase 
these  effects,  until  eventually  none  will  give  the  rate  of 
discount  demanded,  save  those  in  peril  of  stopping  pay- 
ment ;  the  increase  of  the  credit-currency  ceases,  and  the 
efflux  of  gold,  if  it  is  going  on,  is  arrested  by  the  home- 
demand  outbalancing  the  foreign  demand.  And  if  in 
times  of  great  pressure,  and  under  the  temptation  of  high 
discounts,  banks  allow  their  circulation  to  expand  to  a 
somewhat  dangerous  extent,  the  course  is  justified  by  the 
necessities.  As  shown  at  the  outset,  the  process  is  one 
by  which  banks,  on  the  deposit  of  good  securities,  loan 
their  credit  to  traders  who  but  for  loans  would  be  bank- 
rupt. And  that  banks  should  run  some  risks  to  save  hosts 
of  solvent  men  from  inevitable  ruin,  few  will  deny. 
Moreover,  during  a  crisis  which  thus  runs  its  natural 
course,  there  will  really  occur  that  purification  of  the 
mercantile  world,  which  many  think  can  be  effected  only 
by  some  Act-of-Parliament  ordeal.  Under  the  circum- 
stances described,  men  who  have  adequate  securities  to 
offer,  will  get  bank-accommodation ;  but  those  who,  hav- 
ing traded  without  capital  or  beyond  their  means,  have 
not,  will  be  denied  it,  and  will  fail.  Under  a  free  system, 
the  good  will  be  sifted  from  the  bad  ;  whereas  the  exist- 
ing restrictions  on  bank-accommodations,  tend  to  destroy 
good  and  bad  together. 

Thus  it  is  not  true  that  there  need  be  special  regulations 
to  prevent  the  inconvertibility  and  depreciation  of  notes. 
It  is  not  true  that  but  for  legislative  supei-vision,  bankers 
would  let  gold  drain  out  of  the  country  to  an  undue  ex- 
tent. It  is  not  true  that  these  "  currency  theorists  "  have 
discovered  a  place  at  which  the  body-politic  would  bleed 
to  death,  but  for  a  State-styptic. 

What  else  we  have  to  say  on  the  general  question,  may 


342        STATE-TAMPEEINGS   WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

best  be  joined  with  some  commentaries  on  provincial  and 
joint-stock  banking,  to  which  let  us  now  turn. 

Government,  to  preserve  the  Bank-of-England-raonop- 
oly,  having  enacted  that  no  partnership  exceeding  six  per- 
sons should  become  bankers,  and  the  Bank  of  England 
having  refused  to  establish  branches  in  the  provinces,  it 
happened,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century,  when 
the  industrial  progress  was  rapid  and  banks  much  needed, 
that  numerous  private  traders,  shopkeepers,  and  others, 
began  to  issue  notes  payable  on  demand.  And  when,  of 
the  four  hundred  small  banks  which  had  thus  grown  up  in 
less  than  fifty  years,  a  great  number  gave  way  under  the 
first  pressure — when  on  several  subsequent  occasions  like 
results  occurred — when  in  Ireland,  where  the  Bank-of-Ire- 
land-monopoly  had  been  similarly  guaranteed,  it  happened 
that  out  of  fifty  private  provincial  banks,  forty  became 
bankrupt — and  when,  finally,  it  grew  notorious  that  in 
Scotland,  where  there  had  been  no  law  limiting  the  num- 
ber of  partners,  a  whole  century  had  passed  with  scarcely 
a  single  bank-failure,  legislators  at  length  decided  to  abol- 
ish the  restriction  which  had  entailed  such  mischiefs. 
Having,  to  use  Mr.  Mill's  words,  "actually  made  the 
formation  of  safe  banking-establishments  a  punishable  of- 
fence"— ^having,  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  main- 
tained a  law  which  first  caused  great  inconvenience  and 
then  extensive  ruin,  time  after  time  repeated ;  Govern- 
ment in  1826  conceded  the  liberty  of  joint-stock  banking : 
a  liberty  which  the  good  easy  public,  not  distinguishing 
between  a  right  done  and  a  wrong  undone,  regarded  as  a 
great  boon. 

But  the  liberty  was  not  without  conditions.  Having 
previously,  in  anxiety  for  its  proteg'e,  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, been  reckless  of  the  banking-security  of  the  commu- 
nity at  large,  the  State,  like  a  repentant  sinner  rushing 
into  asceticism,  all  at  once  became  extremely  solicitous  on 


EFFECTS  OF  LEaiSLATIVE  INTEEFEEEKCE.  343 

this  point,  and  determined  to  put  guarantees  of  its  own 
devising,  in  place  of  the  natural  guarantee  of  mercantile 
judgment.  To  intending  bank-shareholders  it  said — "  You 
shall  not  unite  on  such  publicly-understood  conditions  as 
you  think  fit,  and  get  such  confidence  as  will  naturally  come 
to  you  on  those  conditions."  And  to  the  public  it  said — 
"  You  should  not  put  trust  in  this  or  that  association  in 
proportion  as,  from  the  character  of  its  members  and  con- 
stitution, you  judge  it  to  be  worthy  of  trust."  But  to 
both  it  said — "  You  shall  the  one  give,  and  the  other  re- 
ceive, my  infallible  safeguards." 

And  now  what  have  been  the  results?  Every  one 
knows  that  these  safeguards  have  proved  any  thing  but 
infallible.  Every  one  knows  that  these  banks  with  State- 
constitutions  have  been  especially  characterized  by  insta- 
bility. Every  one  knows  that  credulous  citizens,  with  a 
faith  in  legislation  which  endless  disappointments  fail  to 
diminish,  have  trusted  implicitly  in  these  law-devised  se- 
curities, and,  not  exercising  their  own  judgments,  have 
been  led  into  ruinous  undertakings.  The  evils  of  substi- 
tuting artificial  guarantees  for  natural  ones,  which  the 
clear-sighted  long  ago  discerned,  have,  by  the  late  catas- 
trophes, been  made  conspicuous  to  alL 

When  commencing  this  article,  we  had  intended  to 
dwell  on  this  point.  For  though  the  mode  of  business 
which  brought  about  these  joint-stock-bank-failures,  was, 
for  weeks  after  their  occurrence,  time  after  time  clearly  de- 
scribed, yet  nowhere  did  we  see  drawn  the  obvious  corol- 
lary. Though  in  three  separate  City-articles  of  The 
Times^  it  was  explained  that,  "  relying  upon  the  ultimate 
liability  of  large  bodies  of  infatuated  shareholders,  the 
discount  houses  supply  these  banks  with  unlimited  means, 
looking  not  to  the  character  of  the  bills  sent  up,  but  sim- 
ply to  the  security  afibrded  by  the  Bank  endorsement ; " 
yet  in  none  of  them  was  it  pointed  out  that,  but  for  the 


344        STATE-TAMPEEINGS   WITH  MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

law  of  unlimited  liability,  this  reckless  trading  would  not 
have  gone  on.  More  recently,  however,  this  truth  has 
been  duly  recognized,  •  alike  in  Parliament  and  in  the 
Press,  and  it  is  therefore  needless  further  to  elucidate  it. 
We  will  simply  add,  that  as,  if  there  had  been  no  law  of 
unlimited  liability,  the  London  houses  would  not  have  dis- 
counted these  bad  bills ;  and  as,  in  that  case,  these  pro- 
vincial joint-stock-banks  could  not  have  given  these  enor- 
mous credits  to  insolvent  speculators  ;  and  as,  if  they  had 
not  done  this,  they  would  not  have  been  ruined ;  it  fol- 
lows, inevitably,  that  these  joint-stock-bank-failures  have 
been  law-produced  disasters. 

A  measure  for  further  increasing  the  safety  of  the  pro- 
vincial public,  was  that  which  limited  the  circulation  of 
provincial  bank-notes.  At  the  same  time  that  it  estab- 
lished a  sliding-scale  for  the  issues  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, the  Act  of  1844  fixed  the  maximum  circulation  of 
every  provincial  bank-of-issue,  and  forbad  any  further 
banks-of-issue.  We  have  not  space  to  discuss  at  length 
the  effects  of  this  restriction :  which  must  have  fallen 
rather  hardly  on  those  especially-careful  bankers  who  had, 
during  the  twelve  weeks  preceding  the  27th  April,  1844, 
narrowed  their  issues  to  meet  any  incidental  contingen- 
cies; while  it  gave  a  perennial  license  to  such  as  had 
been  incautious  during  that  period.  All  which  we  can 
notice  is,  that  this  rigorous  limitation  of  provincial  issues 
to  a  low  maximum  (and  a  low  maximum  was  purposely 
fixed)  effectually  prevents  those  local  expansions  of  bank- 
note circulation,  which,  as  we  have  shown,  ought  to  take 
place  in  periods  of  commercial  difficulty.  And  further, 
that  by  transferring  all  local  demands  to  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, as  the  only  place  from  which  extra  accommodation 
can  be  had,  the  tendency  is  to  concentrate  a  pressure 
which  would  else  be  diffused ;  and  so  to  create  panic. 

Saying  nothing  more,  however,  respecting  the  impolicy 


TEMPTATIONS  OF  BANKERS.  345 

of  the  measure,  let  us  mark  its  futility.  As  a  means  of 
preserving  the  convertibility  of  the  provincial  bank-note, 
it  is  useless  unless  it  acts  as  some  safeguard  against  bank- 
failures,  and  that  it  does  not  do  this  is  demonstrable. 
While  it  diminishes  the  likelihood  of  failures  caused  by 
over-issue  of  notes,  it  increases  the  likelihood  of  failures 
from  other  causes.  For  what  vrill  be  done  by  a  provincial 
banker  whose  issues  are  restricted  by  the  Act  of  1844,  to 
a  level  lower  than  that  to  which  he  would  otherwise  have 
let  them  rise  ?  If  he  would,  but  for  the  law,  have  issued 
more  notes  than  he  now  does — if  his  reserve  is  greater 
than,  in  his  judgment,  is  needful  for  the  security  of  his 
notes,  is  it  not  clear  that  he  will  simply  extend  his  opera- 
tions in  other  directions  ?  Will  not  the  excess  of  his 
available  capital  be  to  him  a  warrant  either  for  entering 
into  larger  speculations  himself,  or  for  allowing  his  cus- 
tomers to  draw  on  him  beyond  the  limit  he  would  else 
have  fixed  ?  If,  in  the  absence  of  restriction,  his  rashness 
would  have  led  him  to  risk  bankruptcy  by  over-issue,  will 
it  not  now  equally  lead  him  to  risk  bankruptcy  by  over- 
banking  ?  And  is  not  the  one  kind  of  bankruptcy  as  fatal 
to  the  convertibility  of  notes  as  the  other  ? 

Nay,  the  case  is  even  worse.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  bankers  are  tempted  into  greater  dangers  under 
this  protective  system.  They  can  and  will  hypothecate 
their  capital  in  ways  less  direct  than  by  notes,  and  may 
very  likely  be  led,  by  the  unobtrusiveness  of  the  process, 
to  commit  themselves  more  than  they  would  else  do.  A 
trader,  applying  to  his  banker  in  times  of  commercial  dif- 
ficulty, will  often  be  met  by  the  reply — "  I  cannot  make 
you  any  direct  advances,  having  already  loaned  as  much 
as  I  can  spare,  but  knowing  you  to  be  a  safe  man,  I  will 
lend  you  my  name.  Here  is  my  acceptance  for  the  sum 
you  require :  they  will  discount  it  for  you  in  London." 
Now,  as  loans  thus  made  do  not  entail  the  same  imme- 
15* 


34:6        STATE-TAMPEEING8  WITH  MONEY  AND  BAKES. 

diate  responsibilities  as  when  made  in  notes  (seeing  that 
they  are  neither  at  once  payable,  nor  do  they  add  to  the 
dangers  of  a  possible  run),  a  banker  is  under  a  temptation 
to  extend  his  liabilities  in  this  way  much  further  than  he 
would  have  done  had  not  law  forced  him  to  discover  a 
new  channel  through  which  to  give  credit. 

And  does  not  the  evidence  that  has  lately  transpired 
go  to  show  that  these  roundabout  ways  of  giving  credit 
do  take  the  place  of  the  interdicted  ways ;  and  that  they 
are  more  dangerous  than  the  interdicted  ways  ?  Is  it  not 
notorious  that  dangerous  forms  of  paper-currency  have 
had  an  unexampled  development  since  the  Act  of  1844? 
Do  not  the  newspapers  and  the  debates  give  daily  proofs 
of  this  ?    And  is  not  the  process  of  causation  obvious  ? 

Indeed,  it  might  have  been  known,  d  priori,  that  such 
a  result  was  sure  to  take  place.  It  has  been  shown  con- 
clusively that,  when  uninterfered  with,  the  amount  of 
note-circulation  at  any  given  time  is  determined  by  the 
amount  of  trade  going  on — ^the  quantity  of  payments  that 
are  being  made.  It  has  been  repeatedly  testified  before 
committee,  that  when  any  local  banker  contracts  his  is- 
sues, he  simply  causes  an  equivalent  increase  in  the  issues 
of  neighbouring  bankers.  And  in  past  times  it  has  been 
more  than  once  complained,  that  when  from  prudential 
motives  the  Bank  of  England  withdrew  part  of  its  notes, 
the  provincial  bankers  immediately  multiplied  their  notes 
to  a  proportionate  extent.  Well,  is  it  not  manifest  that 
this  inverse  variation,  which  holds  between  one  class  of 
bank-notes  and  another,  also  holds  between  bank-notes 
and  other  forms  of  paper-currency  ?  Will  it  not  happen 
that  just  as  diminishing  the  note-circulation  of  one  bank, 
merely  adds  to  the  note-circulation  of  other  banks  ;  so,  an 
artificial  restriction  on  the  circulation  of  bank-notes  in 
general,  will  simply  cause  an  increased  circulation  of  some 
substituted  kind  of  promise-to-pay  ?    And  is  not  this  sub- 


NATURAL   SAFEGUARDS  PREVENTED.  34:7 

stituted  kind,  in  virtue  of  its  novelty  and  irregularity, 
likely  to  be  a  more  unsafe  kind  ?  See,  then,  tlie  predica- 
ment. Over  all  the  bills  of  exchange,  cheques,  etc.,  which 
constitute  nine-tenths  of  the  paper-currency  of  the  king- 
dom, the  State  exercises,  and  can  exercise,  no  control. 
And  the  limit  it  puts  on  the  remaining  tenth,  vitiates  the 
other  nine-tenths,  by  causing  an  abnormal  growth  of  new 
forms  of  credit,  which  experience  proves  to  be  especially 
dangerous. 
C  Thus,  all  which  the  State  does  when  it  exceeds  its  true 
duty,  is  to  hinder,  to  disturb,  to  corrupt.  As  already 
pointed  out,  the  quantity  of  credit  men  will  give  each 
other,  is  determined  by  natural  causes,  moral  and  physi- 
cal— their  average  characters,  their  temporary  states  of 
feeling,  their  circumstances.  If  the  Government  forbids 
one  mode  of  giving  credit,  they  will  find  another,  and 
probably  a  worse.  Be  the  degree  of  mutual  trust  prudent 
or  imprudent,  it  must  take  its  course.  The  attempt  to 
restrict  it  by  law  is  nothing  but  a  repetition  of  the  old 
story  of  keeping  out  the  sea  with  a  fork. 

And  now  mark,  that  were  it  not  for  these  worse  than 
futile  State-safeguards,  there  might  grow  up  certain  nat- 
ural safeguards,  which  would  really  put  a  check  on  undue 
credit  and  abnormal  speculation.  Were  it  not  for  the  at- 
tempts to  insure  security  by  law,  it  is  very  possible  that, 
under  our  high-pressure  system  of  business,  banks  would 
compete  with  each  other  in  respect  of  the  degree  of  secu- 
rity they  offered — would  endeavour  to  outdo  each  other 
in  the  obtainment  of  a  legitimate  public  confidence.  Con- 
sider the  position  of  a  new  joint-stock-bank  with  limited 
liability,  and  unchecked  by  legal  regulations.  It  can  do 
nothing  until  it  has  gained  the  general  good  opinion.  In 
the  way  of  this  there  stand  great  difficulties.  Its  consti- 
tution is  untried,  and  is  sure  to  be  looked  upon  by  the 
trading  world  with  considerable  distrust.     The  field  is  al- 


348       STATE-TAMPEBINGS   WITH   MONEY  AND  BANKS. 

ready  occupied  by  old  banks  with  established  connections. 
Out  of  a  constituency  satisfied  with  the  present  accom- 
modation, it  has  to  obtain  supporters  for  a  system  that  is 
apparently  less  safe  than  the  old.  How  shall  it  do  this  ? 
Evidently  it  must  find  some  unusual  mode  of  assuring  the 
community  of  its  trustworthiness.  And  out  of  a  number 
of  new  banks  so  circumstanced,  it  is  not  too  much  to  sup- 
pose that  ultimately  one  would  hit  on  some  mode.  It 
might  be,  for  instance,  that  such  a  bank  would  give  to 
all  who  held  deposits  over  £1,000  the  liberty  of  inspect- 
ing its  books — of  ascertaining  from  time  to  time  its  lia- 
bilities and  its  investments.  Already  this  plan  is  fre- 
quently adopted  by  private  traders,  as  a  means  of  assuring 
those  who  lend  money  to  them ;  and  this  extension  of  it 
might  naturally  take  place  under  the  pressure  of  compe- 
tition. We  have  put  the  question  to  a  gentleman  who 
has  had  long  and  successful  experience  as  a  manager  of  a 
joint-stock-bank,  and  his  reply  is,  that  some  such  course 
would  very  probably  be  adopted :  adding  that,  under  this 
arrangement,  a  depositor  would  practically  become  a  part- 
ner with  limited  liability. 

Were  a  system  of  this  kind  to  establish  itself,  it  would 
form  a  double  check  to  unhealthy  trading.  Consciousness 
that  its  rashness  would  become  known  to  its  chief  clients, 
would  prevent  the  bank-management  from  being  rash ;  and 
consciousness  that  his  credit  would  be  damaged  when  his 
large  debt  to  the  bank  was  whispered,  would  prevent  the 
speculator  from  contracting  so  large  a  debt.  Both  lender 
and  borrower  would  be  restrained  from  reckless  enter- 
prise. Very  little  inspection  would  suffice  to  effect  this 
end.  One  or  two  cautious  depositors  would  be  enough ; 
seeing  that  the  mere  expectation  of  immediate  disclosure, 
in  case  of  misconduct,  would  mostly  keep  in  order  all 
those  concerned. 

Should  it  however  be  contended,  as  by  some  it  may, 


THE  CHAEGE  OP   EMPIRICISM.  349 

that  this  safeguard  would  be  of  no  avail — should  it  be  al- 
leged that,  having  in  their  own  hands  the  means  of  safety, 
citizens  would  not  use  them,  but  would  still  put  blind 
faith  in  directors,  and  give  unlimited  trust  to  respectable 
names ;  then  we  reply  that  they  would  deserve  whatever 
bad  consequences  fell  on  them.  If  they  did  not  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  proffered  guarantee,  the  penalty  be  on 
their  own  heads.  We  have  no  patience  with  the  mawkish 
philanthropy  which  would  ward  off  the  punishment  of 
stupidity.  The  ultimate  result  of  shielding  men  from  the 
effects  of  folly,  is  to  fill  the  world  with  fools. 

A  few  words  in  conclusion  respecting  the  attitude  of 
our  opponents.  Leaving  joint-stock-bank  legislation,  on 
which  the  eyes  of  the  public  are  happily  becoming  opened, 
and  returning  to  the  Bank-Charter,  with  its  theory  of 
currency-regulation,  we  have  to  charge  its  supporters  with 
gross,  if*  not  wilful,  misrepresentation.  Their  established 
policy  is  to  speak  of  all  antagonism  as  identified  with  ad- 
hesion to  the  vulgarest  fallacies.  They  daily  present,  as 
the  only  alternatives,  their  own  dogma  or  some  wild  doc- 
trine too  absurd  to  be  argued.  "  Side  with  us  or  choose 
anarchy,"  is  the  substance  of  their  homilies. 

To  speak  specifically : — ^They  boldly  assert,  in  the  first 
place,  that  they  are  the  upholders  of  "  principle ; "  and  on 
all  opposition  they  seek  to  fasten  the  title  of  "  empiricism." 
Now,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  see  what  there  is  "  empirical "  in 
the  position,  that  a  bank-note-circulation  will  regulate  it- 
self in  the  same  way  that  the  circulation  of  other  paper- 
currency  does.  It  seems  to  us  any  thing  but  "  empirical," 
to  say  that  the  natural  check  of  prospective  bankruptcy, 
which  restrains  the  trader  from  issuing  too  many  promises- 
to-pay  at  given  dates,  will  similarly  restrain  the  banker 
from  issuing  too  many  promises-to-pay  on  demand.  We 
take  him  to  be  the  opposite  of  an  "  empiric,"  who  holds 


350        STATE-TAMPERINGS   WITH   MONEY  AOT>  BANKS. 

that  people's  characters  and  circumstances  determine  the 
quantity  of  credit-memoranda  in  circulation ;  and  that  the 
monetary  disorders  which  their  imperfect  characters  and 
changing  circumstances  occasionally  entail,  can  be  exacer- 
bated, but  cannot  be  prevented  by  State-nostrums. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  do  not  see  in  virtue  of  what 
"principle"  it  is,  that  the  contract  expressed  on  the  face 
of  a  bank-note  must  be  dealt  with  differently  from  any 
other  contract.  We  cannot  understand  the  "principle" 
which  requires  the  State  to  control  the  business  of  bank- 
ers, so  that  they  may  not  make  engagements  they  cannot 
fulfil,  but  which  does  not  require  the  State  to  do  the  like 
with  other  traders.  To  us  it  is  a  very  incomprehensible 
"  principle"  which  permits  the  Bank  of  England  to  issue 
£14,000,000  on  the  credit  of  the  State,  but  which  is  broken 
if  the  State-credit  is  mortgaged  beyond  this — a  "  princi- 
ple" which  implies  that  £14,000,000  of  notes  may  be  is- 
sued without  gold  to  meet  them,  but  insists  on  rigorous 
precautions  for  the  convertibility  of  every  pound  more. 
We  are  curious  to  learn  how  it  was  inferred  from  this 
"principle"  that  the  average  note-circulation  of  each  pro- 
vincial bank,  during  certain  twelve  weeks  in  1844,  was 
exactly  the  note-circulation  which  its  capital  justified.  So 
far  from  discerning  a  "  principle,"  it  seems  to  us  that  both 
the  idea  and  its  applications  are  as  empirical  as  they  can 
well  be. 

Still  more  astounding,  however,  is  the  assumption  of 
these  "  currency-theorists,"  that  their  doctrines  are  those 
of  Free-trade.  In  the  Legislature,  Lord  Overstone,  and 
in  the  press,  the  Saturday  Beview,  have,  among  others, 
asserted  this.  To  call  that  a  Free-trade  measure,  which 
has  the  avowed  object  of  restricting  certain  voluntary 
acts  of  exchange,  appears  so  manifest  a  contradiction  in 
terms,  that  it  is  scarcely  credible  it  should  be  made.  The 
whole  system  of  currency-legislation  is  restrictionist  from 


THE  CLAIMS  OF   "  FEEE-TRADE."  351 

beginning  to  end  :  equally  in  spirit  and  detail.  Is  that  a 
Free-trade  regulation  which  has  all  along  forbidden  banks 
of  issue  within  sixty-five  miles  of  London  ?  Is  that  Free- 
trade  which  enacts  that  none  but  such  as  have  now  the 
State-warrant,  shall  henceforth  give  promises-to-pay  on 
demand  ?  Is  that  Free-trade  which  at  a  certain  point 
steps  in  between  the  banker  and  his  customer,  and  puts  a 
veto  on  any  farther  exchange  of  credit-documents  ?  We 
wonder  what  would  be  said  by  two  merchants,  the  one 
about  to  draw  a  bill  on  the  other  in  return  for  goods  sold, 
who  should  be  stopped  by  a  State-officer  with  the  remark 
that,  having  examined  the  buyer's  ledger,  he  was  of  opin- 
ion that  ready  as  the  seller  might  be  to  take  the  bill,  it 
would  be  unsafe  for  him  to  do  so ;  and  that  the  law,  in 
pursuance  of  the  principles  of  Free-trade,  negatived  the 
transaction  I  Yet  for  the  promise-to-pay  m  six  months,  it 
needs  but  to  substitute  a  promise-to-pay  on  demand,  and 
the  case  becomes  substantially  that  of  banker  and  cus- 
tomer. 

It  is  true  that  the  "  currency-theorists  "  have  a  colour- 
able excuse  in  the  fact,  that  among  their  opponents  are 
the  advocates  of  various  visionary  schemes,  and  pro- 
pounders  of  regulations  quite  as  protectionist  in  spirit  as 
their  own.  It  is  true  that  there  are  some  who  contend  for 
inconvertible  "  labour-notes ; "  and  others  who  argue  that 
in  times  of  commercial  pressure,  banks  should  not  raise 
their  rates  of  discount.  But  is  this  any  justification  for 
recklessly  stigmatizing  all  antagonism  as  coming  from 
these  classes,  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  Bank- Act  has 
been  protested  against  by  the  highest  authorities  in  politi- 
cal economy  ?  Do  not  the  defenders  of  the  "  currency- 
principle"  know,  that  among  their  opponents  are  Mr. 
Thornton,  long  known  as  an  able  writer  on  currency-ques- 
tions ;  Mr.  Tooke  and  Mr.  Newmarch,  famed  for  their  la- 
borious and  exhaustive  researches  respecting  currency  and 


352       STATE-TAMPEEINGS   WITH   MONEY  AKD  BANKS. 

prices ;  Mr.  FuUarton,  whose  "  Regulation  of  Currencies  " 
is  a  standard  work ;  Mr.  Macleod,  whose  just-issued  book 
displays  the  endless  injustices  and  stupidities  of  our  mon- 
etary history;  Mr.  James  Wilson,  M. P.,  who,  in  detailed 
knowledge  of  commerce,  currency,  and  banking,  is  proba- 
bly unrivalled ;  and  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  both  as 
logician  and  economist,  stands  in  the  first  rank?  Do 
they  not  know  that  the  alleged  distinction  between  bank- 
notes and  other  credit-documents,  which  forms  the  pro- 
fessed basis  of  the  Bank- Act  (and  for  which  Sir  R.  Peel 
could  quote  only  the  one  poor  authority  of  Lord  Liver- 
pool) is  denied,  not  only  by  the  gentlemen  above  named, 
but  also  by  Mr.  Huskisson,  Professor  Storch,  Dr.  Travers 
Twiss,  and  the  distinguished  French  Professors,  M.  Joseph 
Garnier,  and  M.  Michel  Chevalier  ?  *  Do  they  not  know, 
in  short,  that  both  the  profoundest  thinkers  and  the  most 
patient  inquirers  are  against  them  ?  If  they  do  not  know 
this,  it  is  time  they  studied  the  subject  on  which  they 
write  with  such  an  air  of  authority.  If  they  do  know  it, 
a  little  more  respect  for  their  opponents  would  not  be 
unbecoming. 

*  See  Mr.  Tooke's  "  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844,"  etc 


X. 

PAKLIAMENTARY  KEFORM:  THE  DAN- 
GERS, AND  THE  SAFEGUARDS. 


THIRTY  years  ago,  the  dread  of  impending  evils  agi- 
tated not  a  few  breasts  throughout  England.  In- 
stinctive fear  of  change,  justified  as  it  seemed  by  out- 
bursts of  popular  violence,  conjured  up  visions  of  the  an- 
archy which  would  follow  the  passing  of  a  Reform  Bill. 
In  scattered  farmhouses  there  was  chronic  terror,  lest  those 
newly  endowed  with  political  power  should  in  some  way 
filch  all  the  profits  obtained  by  rearing  cattle  and  grow- 
ing corn.  The  occupants  of  halls  and  manors  spoke  of 
ten-pound  householders  almost  as  though  they  formed  an 
army  of  spoilers,  threatening  to  overrun  and  devastate 
the  property  of  landholders.  Among  townspeople  there 
were  some  who  intei-preted  the  abolition  of  old  corrup- 
tions into  the  establishment  of  mob-government,  which 
they  held  to  be  equivalent  with  spoliation.  And  even  in 
Parliament,  such  alarms  found  occasional  utterance :  as, 
for  instance,  through  the  mouth  of  Sir  Robert  Inglis,  who 
hinted  that  the  national  debt  would  not  improbably  be 
repudiated  if  the  proposed  measure  became  law. 

There  may  perhaps   be  a  few  who  regard  the  now 
pending  change  in  the  representation  with  similar  dread — 


354   PAELIAMENTAEY  REFORM :  THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 


who  think  that  artisans  and  others  of  their  grade  are  pre- 
pared, when  the  power  is  given  to  them,  to  lay  hands  on 
property.  We  presume,  however,  that  such  irrational 
alarmists  form  but  a  small  percentage  of  the  nation.  Not 
only  throughout  the  Liberal  party,  but  among  the  Con- 
servatives, there  exists  a  much  fairer  estimate  of  the  pop- 
ular character  than  is  implied  by  anticipations  of  so 
gloomy  a  kind.  Many  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes 
are  conscious  of  the  fact,  that  if  critically  compared,  the 
average  conduct  of  the  wealthy  would  not  be  found  to 
differ  very  widely  in  rectitude  from  that  of  the  poor. 
Making  due  allowance  for  differences  in  the  kinds  and 
degrees  of  temptation  to  which  they  are  exposed,  the 
respective  grades  of  society  are  tolerably  uniform  in 
their  morals.  That  disregard  of  the  rights  of  property 
which,  among  the  people  at  large,  shows  itself  in  the 
direct  form  of  petty  thefts,  shows  itself  among  their  richer 
neighbours  in  various  indirect  forms,  which  are  scarcely 
less  flagitious  and  often  much  more  detrimental  to  fellow 
citizens.  Traders,  wholesale  and  retail,  commit  count- 
less dishonesties,  ranging  from  adulteration  and  short 
measure,  up  to  fraudulent  bankruptcy — dishonesties  of 
which  we  sketched  out  some  of  the  ramifications  in  a 
late  article  on  "  The  Morals  of  Trade."  The  trickeries  of 
the  turf;  the  bribery  of  electors ;  the  non-payment  of 
tradesmen's  bills ;  the  jobbing  in  railway-shares;  the  ob- 
tainment  of  exorbitant  prices  for  land  from  railway-com- 
panies ;  the  corruption  that  attends  the  getting  of  private 
bills  through  Parliament — ^these  and  other  such  illustra- 
tions, show  that  the  unconscientiousness  of  the  upper 
class,  manifested  though  it  is  in  different  forms,  is  not  less 
than  that  of  the  lower  class :  bears  as  great  a  ratio  to  the 
size  of  the  class,  and,  if  traced  to  its  ultimate  results,  pro- 
duces evils  as  great,  if  not  greater. 

And  if  the  facts  prove  that  in  uprightness  of  inten- 


THE  DANGER  TO  BE  APPREHENDED.  355 

tion,  there  is  little  to  choose  between  one  class  of  the 
community  and  another,  an  extension  of  the  franchise 
cannot  rationally  be  opposed  on  the  ground  that  property 
would  be  directly  endangered.  There  is  no  more  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  mass  of  artisans  and  labourers  would 
use  political  power  with  conscious  injustice  to  their  richer 
neighbours,  than  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  their 
richer  neighbours  now  consciously  commit  legal  injustices 
against  artisans  and  labourers. 

What,  then,  is  the  danger  to  be  apprehended?  If 
land,  and  houses,  and  railways,  and  funds^  and  property 
of  all  other  kinds,  would  be  held  with  no  less  security 
than  now,  why  need  there  be  any  fears  that  the  franchise 
would  be  misused  ?  What  are  the  misuses  of  it  which 
are  rationally  to  be  anticipated  ? 

The  ways  in  which  those  to  be  endowed  with  political 
power  are  likely  to  abuse  it,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
ways  in  which  political  power  has  been  abused  by  those 
who  have  possessed  it. 

What  general  trait  has  characterized  the  rule  of  the 
classes  hitherto  dominant  ?  These  classes  have  not  habit- 
ually sought  their  own  direct  advantage  at  the  expense  of 
other  classes ;  but  their  measures  have  nevertheless  fre- 
quently been  such  as  were  indirectly  advantageous  to 
themselves.  Voluntary  self-sacrifice  has  been  the  excep- 
tion. The  rule  has  been,  so  to  legislate  as  to  preserve  pri- 
vate interests  from  injury,  whether  public  interests  were 
injured  or  not.  Though,  in  equity,  a  landlord  has  no 
greater  claim  on  a  defaulting  tenant  than  any  other  cred- 
itor, yet  landlords,  having  formed  the  majority  of  the  le- 
gislature, the  law  has  given  them  power  to  recover  rent  in 
anticipation  of  other  creditors.  Though  the  duties  paya. 
ble  to  government  on  the  transfer  of  property  to  heirs  and 
legatees,  might  justly  have  been  made  to  fall  more  hea- 


356      PARLIAMENTABY  EEFORM :   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

vily  on  the  wealthy  than  on  the  comparatively  poor,  and 
on  real  property  rather  than  on  personal  property,  yet  the 
reverse  arrangement  was  enacted  and  long  maintained, 
and  is  even  still  partially  in  force.  Rights  of  presentation 
to  places  in  the  Church,  obtained  however  completely  in 
violation  of  the  spirit  of  the  law,  are  yet  tenaciously  de- 
fended, with  little  or  no  regard  to  the  welfare  of  those  for 
whom  the  Church  ostensibly  exists.  "Were  it  not  ac- 
counted for  by  the  bias  of  personal  interests,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  explain  the  fact,  that  on  the  question  of  pro- 
tection to  agriculture,  the  landed  classes  and  their  depend- 
ents were  ranged  against  the  other  classes :  the  same  evi- 
dence being  open  to  both.  And  if  there  needs  a  still 
stronger  illustration,  we  have  it  in  the  opposition  made  to 
the  repeal  of  the  Corn-Laws  by  the  established  clergy. 
Though  by  their  office,  preachers  of  justice  and  mercy — 
though  constantly  occupied  in  condemning  selfishness  and 
holding  up  a  supreme  example  of  self-sacrifice;  yet  so 
swayed  were  they  by  those  temporal  interests  which  they 
thought  endangered,  that  they  offered  to  this  proposed 
change  an  almost  uniform  resistance.  Out  of  some  ten 
thousand  ex  officio  friends  of  the  poor  and  needy,  there 
was  but  one  (the  Rev.  Thomas  Spencer)  who  took  an  ac- 
tive part  in  abolishing  this  tax  imposed  on  the  people's 
bread  for  the  maintenance  of  landlords'  rents. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  ways  in  which,  in  modern  times, 
.those  who  have  the  power  seek  their  own  benefit  at  the 
expense  of  the  resty  It  is  in  analogous  ways  that  we  must 
expect  any  section  of  the  community  which  may  be  made 
predominant  by  a  political  change,  to  sacrifice  the  welfare 
of  other  sections  to  its  own.  While  we  do  not  see  reason 
to  think  that  the  lower  classes  are  intrinsically  less  con- 
scientious than  the  upper  classes,  we  do  not  see  reason  to 
think  that  they  are  more  conscientious./  Holding,  as  we 
do,  that  in  each  society,  and  in  each  age,  the  morality  is, 


BIAS   OF  THE   WORKING   CLASSES.  35Y 

on  the  average,  the  same  throughout  all  ranks ;  it  seems 
to  us  clear  that  if  the  rich,  when  they  have  the  opportu- 
nity, make  laws  which  unduly  favour  themselves,  it  must 
be  concluded  that  the  poor,  if  their  power  was  in  excess, 
would  do  the  like  in  similar  ways  and  to  a  similar  extent. 
Without  believing  that  they  would  knowingly  enact  in- 
justice, we  believe  that  they  would  be  unconsciously 
biased  by  personal  considerations,  and  that  our  legislation 
would  err  as  much  in  a  new  direction  as  it  has  hitherto 
done  in  the  old. 

This  abstract  conclusion  we  shall  find  confirmed  on 
contemplating  the  feelings  and  opinions  current  among 
artisans  and  labourers.^  What  the  working  classes  now 
wish  done,  indicates  what  they  would  be  likely  to  do,  if  a 
reform  in  the  representation  made  them  preponderate. 
Judging  from  their  prevailing  sentiments,  they  would 
doubtless  do,  or  aid  in  doing,  many  things  which  it  is  de- 
sirable to  have  done.  Such  a  question  as  that  of  Church- 
rates  would  have  been  settled  long  ago  had  the  franchise 
been  wider.  s^Aiiy  great  increase  of  popular  influence, 
would  go  far  to  rectify  the  present  inequitable  relation  of 
the  established  religious  sect  to  the  rest  of  the  community. 
And  various  other  remnants  of  class-legislation  would 
soon  be  swept  away.  But  besides  ideas  likely  to  eventu- 
ate in  changes  which  we  should  regard  as  beneficial,  the 
working  classes  entertain  ideas  that  could  not  be  realized 
without  gross  injustice  to  other  classes  and  ultimate  injury 
to  themselves.  There  is  among  them  a  prevailing  enmity 
towards  capitalists.  The  fallacy  that  machinery  acts  to 
their  damage,  is  still  widely  spread,  both  among  rural  la- 
bourers and  the  inhabitants  of  towns.  And  they  show  a 
wish,  not  only  to  dictate  hoAv  long  per  day  men  shall 
work,  but  to  regulate  all  the  relations  between  employers 
and  employed.  Let  us  briefly  consider  the  evidence  of 
this. 


358      PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM*.   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

When,  adding  another  to  the  countless  errors  which  it 
has  taught  the  people,  the  Legislature,  by  passing  the 
Ten-Hours-Bill,  asserted  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  State 
to  limit  the  duration  of  labour,  there  naturally  arose 
among  the  working  classes,  the  desire  for  further  ameliora- 
tions to  be  secured  in  the  same  way.  First  came  the  for- 
midable strike  of  the  Amalgamated  Engineers.  The  rules 
of  this  body  aim  to  restrict  the  supply  of  labour  in  va- 
rious ways.  'No  member  is  allowed  to  work  more  than  a 
fixed  number  of  hours  per  week  ;  nor  for  less  than  a  fixed 
rate  of  wages.  No  man  is  admitted  into  the  trade  who 
has  not  "  earned  a  right  by  probationary  servitude." 
There  is  a  strict  registration,  which  is  secured  by  fines  on 
any  one  who  neglects  to  notify  his  marriage,  removal,  or 
change  of  service.  The  council  decides,  without  appeal, 
on  all  the  affairs,  individual  and  general,  of  the  body. 
How  tyrannical  are  the  regulations  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact,  that  members  are  punished  for  divulging  any 
thing  concerning  the  society's  business ;  for  censuring  one 
another ;  for  vindicating  the  conduct  of  those  fined,  etc. 
And  their  own  unity  of  action  being  secured  by  these  co- 
ercive measures,  the  Amalgamated  Engineers  made  a  pro- 
longed effort  to  impose  on  their  employers,  sundry  restric- 
tions which  they  supposed  would  be  beneficial  to  them- 
selves. More  recently,  we  have  seen  similar  objects 
worked  for  by  similar  means  during  the  strike  of  the  Op- 
erative Builders.  In  one  of  their  early  manifestoes,  this 
body  of  men  contended  that  they  had  "  an  equal  right  to 
share  with  other  workers,  that  large  amount  of  public 
sympathy  which  is  now  being  so  widely  extended  in  the 
direction  of  shortening  the  hours  of  labour:"  thus  show- 
ing at  once  their  delusion  and  its  source.  Believing,  as 
they  had  been  taught  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  to  believe, 
that  the  relation  between  the  quantity  of  labour  given 
and  the  wages  received,  is  not  a  natural  but  an  artificial 


CLAIMS  OF   OPERATIVE  BUILDERS.  359 

one ;  they  demanded  that  while  the  wages  remained  the 
same,  the  hours  should  be  reduced  from  ten  to  nine. 
They  recommended  their  employers  so  to  make  their  fu- 
ture contracts,  as  to  allow  for  this  diminished  day's  work : 
saying  they  were  "  so  sanguine  as  to  consider  the  con- 
summation of  their  desire  inevitable : "  a  polite  way  of 
hinting  that  their  employers  must  succumb  to  the  irresisti- 
ble power  of  their  organization.  Referring  to  the  threat 
of  the  master-builders  to  close  their  works,  they  warned 
them  against  "the  responsibility  of  causing  the  public 
disaster"  thus  indicated.  And  when  the  breach  finally 
took  place,  the  Unionists  set  in  action  the  approved  appli- 
ances for  bringing  masters  to  terms,  and  would  have  suc- 
ceeded had  it  not  been  that  their  antagonists,  believing 
that  concessions  would  be  ruinous,  made  a  united  resist- 
ance. During  several  previous  years,  master-builders  had 
been  yielding  to  various  extravagant  demands,  of  which 
those  recently  made  were  a  further  development.  Had 
they  assented  to  the  diminished  day's  work,  and  abolished 
systematic  overtime,  as  they  were  required  to  do,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  the  dictation  would  have  ended  here. 
Success  would  have  presently  led  to  still  more  exacting 
requirements,  and  future  years  would  have  witnessed  fur- 
ther extensions  of  this  mischievous  meddling  between  cap- 
ital and  labour. 

Perhaps  the  completest  illustration  of  the  industrial 
regulations  that  find  favour  with  artisans,  is  supplied  by 
the  Printers'  Union.  With  the  exception  of  those  engaged 
in  The  Times  office,  and  in  one  other  large  establishment, 
the  proprietors  of  which  successfully  resisted  the  combi- 
nation, the  compositors,  pressmen,  etc.,  throughout  the 
kingdom,  form  a  society  which  controls  all  the  relations 
between  employers  and  employed.  There  is  a  fixed  price 
for  setting  up  the  type^— so  much  per  thousand  letters  :  no 
master  can  give  less,  no  compositor  being  allowed  by  the 


360      PAELIAMENTABY  EEFOEM  :   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

Union  to  work  for  less.  There  are  established  rates  for 
press- work,  and  established  numbers  less  than  which  you 
cannot  have  printed,  without  paying  for  work  that  is  not 
done.  The  scale  rises  by  what  are  called  "  tokens "  of 
250 ;  and  if  but  50  copies  are  required,  the  charge  is  the 
same  as  for  printing  250 ;  or  if  300  are  wanted,  payment 
must  be  made  for  500.  Besides  regulating  prices  and 
modes  of  charging  to  their  own  advantage,  in  these  and 
other  ways,  the  members  of  the  Union  restrict  competition 
by  limiting  the  number  of  apprentices  brought  into  the 
business.  So  well  organized  is  this  combination  that  the 
masters  are  obliged  to  succumb.  An  infraction  of  the 
rules  in  any  printing-office,  leads  to  a  strike  of  the  men  ; 
and  this  being  supported  by  the  Union  at  large,  the  em- 
ployer has  to  yield. 

That  in  other  trades,  artisans  would,  if  they  could,  es- 
tablish restrictive  systems  equally  complete  with  this,  we 
take  to  be  sufficiently  proved  by  their  often  repeated  at- 
tempts. The  Tin-plate-Workers'  strike,  the  Coventry- 
Weavers'  strike,  the  Engineers'  strike,  the  Shoemakers' 
strike,  the  Builders'  strike,  all  show  a  most  decided  lean- 
ing towards  a  despotic  regulation  of  trade-prices,  hours, 
and  arrangements — towards  an  abolition  of  free  trade  be- 
tween employers  and  employed.  Should  the  men  engaged 
in  our  various  industries  succeed  in  their  aims,  each  indus- 
try would  be  so  shackled  as  seriously  to  raise  the  cost  of 
production.  The  chief  penalty  would  thus  fall  on  the 
working  classes  themselves.  Each  producer,  while  pro- 
tected in  the  exercise  of  his  own  occupation,  would  on 
every  commodity  he  bought  have  to  pay  an  extra  price, 
consequent  on  the  protection  of  other  producers.  In  short, 
there  would  be  established,  under  a  new  form,  the  old  mis- 
chievous system  ot  mutual  taxation.  And  a  final  result 
would  be  such  a  diminished  ability  to  compete  with  other 
nations  as  to  destroy  our  foreign  trade. 


DESPOTISM  OF  TRADES-UNIONS.  361 

Against  results  like  these  it  behoves  us  carefully  to 
guard.  4  It  becomes  a  grave  question  how  far  we  may 
safely  give  political  power  to  those  who  entertain  views 
so  erroneous  respecting  fundamental  social  relations,  and 
who  so  pertinaciously  struggle  to  enforce  these  erroneous 
views.  Men  who  render  up  their  private  liberties  to  the 
despotic  rulers  of  trades-unions,  seem  scarcely  independ- 
ent enough  rightly  to  exercise  political  liberties.  Those 
who  so  ill  understand  the  nature  of  freedom,  as  to  think 
that  any  man  or  body  of  men  has  a  right  to  prevent  em- 
ployer and  employed  from  making  any  contract  they 
please,  would  almost  appear  to  be  incapacitated  for  the 
guardianship  of  their  own  freedom  and  that  of  their  fel- 
low-citizens. When  their  notions  of  rectitude  are  so  con- 
fused, that  they  think  it  a  duty  to  obey  the  arbitrary  com- 
mands of  their  union-authorities,  and  to  abandon  the  right 
of  individually  disposing  of  their  labour  on  their  own 
terms — when,  in  conformity  with  this  inverted  sense  of 
duty,  they  even  risk  the  starvation  of  their  families — 
when  they  call  that  an  "odious  document"  which  simply 
demands  that  master  and  man  shall  be  free  to  make  their 
own  bargains — when  their  sense  of  justice  is  so  obtuse 
that  they  are  ready  to  bully,  to  deprive  of  work,  to  starve, 
and  even  to  kill,  members  of  their  own  class  who  rebel 
against  dictation,  and  assert  their  rights  to  sell  their  la- 
bour at  such  rates  and  to  such  persjons  as  they  think  fit — 
when  in  short  they  prove  themselves  ready  to  become 
alike  slaves  and  tyrants,  we  may  well  pause  before  giving 
them  the  franchise.  ^ 

The  objects  which  artisans  have  long  sought  to  achieve 
by  their  private  organizations,  they  would,  had  they  ade- 
quate political  power,  seek  to  achieve  by  public  enact- 
ments. If,  on  points  like  those  instanced,  their  convictions 
are  so  strong  and  their  determination  so  great,  that  they 
will  time  after  time  submit  to  extreme  privations  in  the 
16 


362      PAELIAMENTAEY  REFORM :  THE  DAl^GERS,  ETC. 

effort  to  carry  them,  it  is  a  reasonable  expectation  that 
these  convictions,  pushed  with  this  determination,  would 
soon  be  expressed  in  law,  if  those  who  held  them  had  a 
dominant  power.  With  working  men,  questions  concern- 
ing the  regulation  of  labour  are  of  the  highest  interest. 
Candidates  for  Parliament  would  be  more  likely  to  obtain 
their  suffrages  by  pandering  to  their  prejudices  on  such 
questions,  than  in  any  other  way.  Should  it  be  said  that 
no  evil  need  be  feared  unless  the  artisan-class  numerically 
preponderated  in  the  constituencies,  it  may  be  rejoined 
that  not  unfrequently,  where  two  chief  political  parties 
are  nearly  balanced,  some  other  party,  though  much 
smaller,  determines  the  election.  When  we  bear  in  mind 
that  the  trades-unions  throughout  the  kingdom  number 
600,000  members,  and  command  a  fund  of  .£300,000 — 
when  we  remember  that  these  trades-unions  are  in  the 
habit  of  aiding  each  other,  and  have  even  been  incorpo- 
rated into  one  national  association — when  we  also  remem- 
ber that  their  organization  is  very  complete,  and  their 
power  over  their  members  mercilessly  exercised,  it  seems 
likely  that  at  a  general  election  their  combined  action 
would  decide  the  result  in  many  towns :  even  though  the 
artisans  in  each  case  foi-med  but  a  moderate  portion  of  the 
constituency.  How  influential  small  but  combined  bodies 
are,  the  Irish  Members  of  our  House  of  Commons  prove 
to  us,  and  still  more  clearly  the  Irish  emigrants  in  Amer 
ica.  Certainly  these  trade-combinations  are  not  less  per- 
fectly organized ;  nor  are  the  motives  of  their  members 
less  strong.  Judge  then  how  efficient  their  political  action 
would  be. 

It  is  true  that  in  county-constituencies  and  rural  towns, 
the  artisan  class  have  no  power ;  and  that  in  the  antago- 
nism of  agriculturists  there. would  be  a  restraint  on  their 
projects.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  artisans  would,  on 
these  questions,  have  the  sympathy  of  many  not  belong- 


DIFFICULTY   OF  EXTENDINa  FEANCHI8E.  363 

ing  to  their  own  hodj.C  Numerous  small  shopkeepers,  and 
others  who  are  in  point  of  means  about  on  their  level, 
would  go  with  them  in  their  efforts  to  regulate  the  rela- 
tions of  capital  and  labour.  Among  the  middle  classes, 
too,  there  are  not  a  few  kindly-disposed  men  who  are  so 
ignorant  of  political  economy  as  to  think  the  artisans  jus- 
tified in  their  aims.  Even  among  the  landed  class  they 
might  find  supporters.  We  have  but  to  recollect  the  an- 
tipathy shown  by  landowners  in  Parliament  to  the  manu- 
facturing interest,  during  the  ten-hours'  agitation,  to  see 
that  it  is  quite  possible  for  country  squires  to  join  the 
working  men  in  imposing  restrictions  unfavourable  to  em- 
ployers. True,  the  angry  feeling  which  then  prompted 
them  has  in  some  measure  died  away.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
too,  that  they  have  gained  wisdom.  But  still,  remember- 
ing the  past,  we  must  take  this  contingency  into  account. 
Here,  then,  is  one  of  the  dangers  to  which  an  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise  opens  the  door.  <While  the  fear  that 
the  rights  of  property  may  be  directly  interfered  with, 
is  absurd,  it  is  a  very  rational  fear  that  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty may  be  indirectly  interfered  with — that  by  cramping 
laws,  the  capitalist  may  be  prevented  from  using  his 
money  as  he  finds  best,  and  the  workman  from  selling 
his  labour  to  the  greatest  advantage.  We  are  not  pre- 
pared to  say  what  widening  of  the  representation  would 
bring  about  such  results.  We  profess  neither  to  estimate 
what  amount  of  artisan-power  a  £6  or  a  £5  borough-fran- 
chise would  give ;  nor  to  determine  whether  the  opposing 
powers  would  suffice  to  keep  it  in  check.  Our  purpose 
here  is  simply  to  indicate  this  establishment  of  injurious 
industrial  regulations,  as  one  of  the  dangers  to  be  kept  in 
view. 

Turn  we  now  to  another  danger,  distinct  from  the  fore- 
going, though  near  akin  to  it.     Next  after  the  evils  of  that 


364      PARLIAMENTAEY  REFORM  :   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

over-legislation  which  restricts  the  exchange  of  capital 
and  labour,  come  the  evils  of  that  over  legislation  which 
provides  for  the  community,  by  State-agency,  benefits 
which  capital  and  labour  should  be  left  spontaneously  to 
provide.  And  it  naturally  though  unfortunately  happens, 
that  those  who  lean  to  the  one  kind  of  over-legislation, 
lean  also  to  the  other  kind.  Men  leading  laborious  lives, 
relieved  by  little  in  the  shape  of  enjoyment,  give  willing 
ears  to  the  doctrine  that  the  State  should  provide  them 
with  various  positive  advantages  and  gratifications.  The 
much-enduring  poor  cannot  be  expected  to  deal  very  criti- 
cally with  those  who  promise  them  gratis  pleasures.  As 
a  drowning  man  catches  at  a  straw,  so  will  one  whose  ex- 
istence is  burdensome  catch  at  any  thing,  no  matter  how 
unsubstantial,  which  holds  out  the  slightest  hope  of  a  lit- 
tle happiness.  We  must  not,  therefore,  blame  the  work 
ing-classes  for  being  ready  converts  to  socialistic  schemes, 
or  to  a  belief  in  "  the  sovereign  power  of  political  ma- 
chinery." 

Not  that  the  working-classes  alone  fall  into  these  delu- 
sions. Unfortunately  they  are  countenanced,  and  have 
been  in  part  misled,  by  those  above  them.  ^In  Parliament 
and  out  of  Parliament,  well-meaning  men  among  the  up- 
per and  middle  ranks,  have  been  active  apostles  of  these 
false  doctrines.  There  has  ever  been,  and  still  contin- 
ues to  be,  very  much  law-making  based  on  the  assump- 
tion, that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State,  not  simply  to  insure 
each  citizen  fair  play  in  the  battle  of  life,  but  to  help  him 
in  fighting  the  battle  of  life;  having  previously  taken 
money  from  his  or  some  one  else's  pocket  to  pay  the  cost 
of  doing  this.  And  we  cannot  glance  over  the  papers 
without  seeing  how  active  are  the  agitations  carried  on 
out  of  doors  in  furtherance  of  this  policy,  and  how  they 
threaten  to  become  daily  more  active.  The  doings  of  the 
Chadwick-school  furnish  one  set  of  illustrations.     From 


UTOPIANISMS   OF   THE   W0EKING-CLASSE3.  365 

those  of  the  Shaftesbury-school  other  illustrations  may  bo 
gathered.  And  in  the  transactions  of  the  body,  absurdly 
self-entitled  "  The  National  Association  for  the  Promotion 
of  Social  Science,"  we  find  still  more  numerous  develop- 
ments of  this  mischievous  error. 

When  we  say  that  the  working-classes,  and  more  espe- 
cially the  artisan-classes,  have  strong  leanings  towards 
these  Utopianisms,  which  they  have  unhappily  been  en- 
couraged to  entertain  by  many  who  should  have  known 
better,  we  do  not  speak  at  random.  --» We  are  not  drawing 
an  d  priori  inference  as  to  the  doctrines  likely  to  find  fa- 
vour with  men  in  their  position.  Nor  are  we  guided 
merely  by  evidence  to  be  gathered  from  newspapers.  But 
we  have  a  basis  of  definite  fact  in  the  proceedings  of  re- 
formed municipal  governments.  These  bodies  have  from 
year  to  year  extended  their  functions ;  and  so  heavy  has 
in  some  cases  become  the  consequent  local  taxation,  as  to 
have  caused  a  reaction  against  the  political  party  that  was 
responsible.  Town-councils  almost  exclusively  Whig, 
have  of  late  been  made  comparatively  Conservative,  by 
the  efforts  of  those  richer  classes  who  suffer  most  from 
municipal  extravagance.  With  whom,  then,  has  this  ex- 
travagance been  popular  ?  With  the  poorer  members  of 
the  constituencies.  Candidates  for  town-councillorships 
have  found  no  better  means  of  insuring  the  suffrages  of 
the  mass,  than  the  advocacy  of  this  or  the  other  local  un- 
dertaking. To  build  baths  and  wash-houses  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  town,  has  proved  a  popular  proposal.  The 
support  of  public  gardens,  out  of  funds  raised  by  local 
rates,  has  been  applauded  by  the  majority.  So,  too,  with 
the  establishment  of  free  libraries,  which  has,  of  course, 
met  with  encouragement  from  workingmen,  and  from 
those  who  wish  to  find  favour  with  them.  Should  some 
one,  taking  a  hint  from  the  cheap  concerts  now  common 
in  our  manufacturing  towns,  propose  to  supply  music  at 


366      PAKLIAMENTARY  REFORM :   THE   DANGERS,  ETC. 

the  public  cost,  we  doubt  not  he  would  be  hailed  as  a 
friend  of  the  people.  And  similarly  with  countless  social- 
istic schemes,  of  which,  when  once  commenced,  there  is 
no  end. 

Such  being  the  demonstrated  tendencies  of  municipal 
governments,  with  their  extended  bases  of  representation, 
is  it  not  a  fair  inference  that  a  Central  Government,  hav- 
ing a  base  of  representation  much  wider  than  the  present^ 
would  manifest  like  tendencies  ?  /We  shall  see  the  more 
reason  for  fearing  this,  when  we  remember  that  those  who 
approve  of  multiplied  State-agencies,  would  generally  ally 
themselves  with  those  who  seek  for  the  legislative  regula- 
tion of  labour.  The  doctrines  are  near  akin ;  and  they 
are,  to  a  considerable  extent,  held  by  the  same  persons.^ 
If  united  the  two  bodies  would  have  a  fonnidable  power ; 
and,  appealed  to  as  they  would  often  be,  by  candidates! 
expressing  sympathy  on  both  these  points,  they  might, 
even  though  a  minority,  get  unduly  represented  in  the 
Legislature.  Such,  at  least,  seems  to  us  a  further  danger. 
Led  by  philanthropists  having  sympathies  stronger  than 
their  intellects,  the  working-classes  are  very  likely  to  em- 
ploy their  influence  in  increasing  over-legislation :  not  only 
by  agitating  for  industrial  regulations,  but  in  various  other 
ways.  What  extension  of  franchise  would  make  this  dan- 
ger a  serious  one,  we  do  not  pretend  to  say.  Here,  as 
before,  we  would  simply  indicate  a  probable  source  of 
mischief. 

And  now  what  are  the  safeguards  ?  Not  such  as  we 
believe  will  be  adopted.  To  meet  evils  like  those  which 
threaten  to  follow  the  impending  political  change,  the 
common  plan  is  to  devise  special  checks — minor  limita- 
tions and  qualifications.  Not  to  dry  up  the  evil  at  its 
source,  but  to  dam  it  out,  is,  in  analogous  cases,  the  usa^ 
aim.     We  have  no  faith  in  such  methods.     The  only  effi- 


THE  TRUE  COEEECTTVE.  367 

cient  safeguard  lies  in  a  change  of  convictions  and  mo- 
tives. And  to  work  a  change  of  this  kind,  there  is  no 
certain  way  but  that  of  letting  men  directly  feel  the  pen- 
alties which  mistaken  legislation  brings  on  them.  "  How 
is  this  to  be  done  ?"  the  reader  will  doubtless  ask.  Sim- 
ply by  letting  causes  and  effects  stand  in  their  natural 
relations.  Simply  by  taking  away  those  vicious  arrange- 
ments which  now  mostly  prevent  men  from  seeing  the 
reactions  that  follow  legislative  actions. 

At  present,  the  extension  of  public  administrations  is 
popular,  mainly  because  there  has  not  been  established  in 
the  minds  of  the  people,  any  distinct  connection  between 
the  benefits  to  be  gained  and  the  expenses  to  be  paid.  Of 
the  conveniences  or  gratifications  secured  to  them  by 
some  new  body  of  officials  with  a  fund  at  its  disposal, 
they  have  immediate  experience ;  but  of  the  way  in  which 
the  costs  fall  on  the  nation,  and  ultimately  on  themselves, 
they  have  no  immediate  experience.  Our  fiscal  arrange- 
ments dissociate  the  ideas  of  increased  public  expenditure 
and  increased  burdens  on  all  who  labour,  and  thus  encour- 
age the  superstition  that  law  can  give  gratis  benefits. 
This  is  clearly  the  chief  cause  of  that  municipal  extrava- 
gance to  which  we  have  above  adverted.  The  working 
men  of  our  towns  possess  public  power,  while  many  of 
them  do  not  directly  bear  public  burdens.  On  small 
houses  the  taxes  for  borough-purposes  are  usually  paid  by 
the  landlords ;  and  of  late  years,  for  the  sake  of  conven- 
ience and  economy,  there  has  grown  up  a  system  of  com- 
pounding with  landlords  of  small  houses  even  for  the 
poorVrates  chargeable  to  their  tenants. 

Under  this  arrangement,  at  first  voluntary  but  now 
compulsory,  a  certain  discount  off  the  total  rates  due  from 
a  number  of  houses,  is  allowed  to  the  owner,  in  considera- 
tion of  his  paying  the  rates,  and  thus  saving  the  authori- 
ties trouble  and  loss  in  collection.    And  he  is  supposed  to 


368      PAELIAMENTAEY  EEFOEM :   THE  DAN-GEES,  ETC. 

raise  his  rents  by  the  full  amount  of  the  rates  charged. 
Thus,  most  municipal  electors,  not  paying  local  taxes  in  a 
separate  form,  are  not  constantly  reminded  of  the  connec- 
tion between  public  expenditure  and  personal  costs ;  and 
hence  it  happens  that  any  outlay  made  for  local  purposes, 
no  matter  how  extravagant  and  unreasonable,  which 
brings  to  them  some  kind  of  advantage,  is  regarded  as 
pure  gain.  If  the  corporation  resolves,  quite  unnecessa- 
rily, to  rebuild  a  town-hall,  the  resolution  is  of  course  ap- 
proved by  the  majority.  "  It  is  good  for  trade,  and  it 
costs  us  nothing,"  is  the  argument  which  passes  vaguely 
through  their  minds.  If  some  one  proposes  to  buy  an 
adjoining  estate,  and  turn  it  into  a  public  park,  the  work- 
ing classes  naturally  give  their  support  to  the  proposal ; 
for  ornamented  grounds  cannot  but  be  an  advantage,  and 
though  tlie  rates  may  be  increased,  that  will  be  no  affair 
of  theirs.  Thus  necessarily  arises  a  tendency  to  multiply 
public  agencies  and  increase  public  outlay.  It  becomes 
an  established  policy  with  popularity-hunters,  to  advocate 
new  works  to  be  executed  by  the  town.  Those  who  dis- 
approve this  course  are  in  fear  that  their  seats  may  be 
jeopardized  at  the  next  election,  should  they  make  a  vig- 
orous opposition.  And  thus  do  these  local  administrations 
inevitably  lean  towards  abnormal  developments. 

No  one  can,  we  think,  doubt,  that  were  the  rates  lev- 
ied directly  on  all  electors,  a  check  would  be  given  to  this 
municipal  communism.  If  each  small  occupier  found  that 
every  new  work  undertaken  by  the  authorities,  cost  him 
so  many  pence  extra  in  the  pound,  he  would  begin  to  con- 
sider with  himself,  whether  the  advantage  gained  was 
equivalent  to  the  price  paid  ;  and  would  often  reach  a  neg- 
ative conclusion.  It  would  become  a  question  with  him 
whether,  instead  of  letting  the  local  government  provide 
him  with  certain  remote  advantages  in  return  for  certain 
moneys,  he  might  not  himself  purchase  with  such  moneys 


BENEFITS  OF  DIEECT  TAXATION.  369 

immediate  advantages  of  greater  worth ;  and,  generally, 
he  would  decide  that  he  could  do  this.  Without  saying 
to  what  extent  such  a  restraint  would  act,  we  may  safely 
say  that  it  would  be  beneficial.  Every  one  must  admit, 
that  each  inhabitant  of  a  town  ought  constantly  to  be  re- 
minded of  the  relation  between  the  work  performed  for 
him  by  the  corporation  and  the  sum  he  pays  for  it.  No 
one  can,  we  think,  deny  that  the  habitual  experience  of 
this  relation  would  tend  to  keep  the  action  of  local  gov- 
ernments within  proper  bounds. 

Similarly  with  the  Central  Government.  Here  the 
effects  wrought  by  public  agencies,  are  still  more  disso- 
ciated from  the  costs  they  entail  on  each  citizen.  The 
bulk  of  the  taxes  being  raised  in  so  unobtrusive  a  way, 
and  affecting  the  masses  in  modes  so  difficult  to  trace,  it  is 
scarcely  possible  for  the  masses  to  realize  the  fact,  that 
the  sums  paid  by  Government  for  supporting  schools,  for 
facilitating  emigration,  for  inspecting  mines,  factories, 
railways,  ships,  etc.,  have  been  in  great  part  taken  from 
their  own  pockets.  The  more  intelligent  of  them  under- 
stand this  as  an  abstract  truth ;  but  it  is  not  a  truth 
present  to  their  minds  in  such  a  definite  shape  as  to  influ- 
ence their  actions.  Quite  otherwise,  however,  would  it  be 
if  taxation  were  direct ;  and  the  expense  of  every  new 
State-agency  were  felt  by  each  citizen  as  an  additional 
demand  made  on  him  by  the  tax-gatherer.  Then  would 
there  be  a  clear,  constantly-recurring  experience  of  the 
truth,  that  for  every  thing  which  the  State  gives  with  one 
hand  it  takes  away  something  with  the  other ;  and  then 
would  it  be  less  easy  to  propagate  absurd  delusions  about 
the  powers  and  duties  of  Governments. 

No  one  can  question  this  conclusion  who  calls  to  mind 
the  reason  currently  given  for  maintaining  indirect  taxa- 
tion ;  namely,  that  the  required  revenue  could  not  other- 
wise be  raised.  Statesmen  see  that  if  instead  of  taking 
16* 


370      PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM 

from  the  citizen  here  a  little  and  there  a  little,  in  ways 
that  he  does  not  know  or  constantly  forgets,  the  whole 
amount  were  demanded  in  a  lump  sum,  it  would  scarcely 
be  possible  to  get  it  paid.  Grumbling  and  resistance 
would  rise  probably  to  disaffection.  Coercion  would  in 
hosts  of  cases  be  needed  to  obtain  this  large  total  tax ; 
which  indeed,  even  with  this  aid,  could  not  be  obtained 
from  the  majority  of  the  people,  whose  improvident  hab- 
its prevent  the  accumulation  of  considerable  sums.  And 
so  the  revenue  would  fall  immensely  short  of  that  expen- 
diture which  is  supposed  necessary.  This  being  assented 
to,  it  must  perforce  be  admitted  that  under  a  system  of 
direct  taxation,  further  extension  of  public  administra- 
tions, entailing  further  costs,  would  meet  with  general 
opposition.  Instead  of  multiplying  the  functions  of  the 
State,  the  tendency  would  obviously  be  to  reduce  their 
number. 

Here,  then,  is  one  of  the  safeguards.  The  incidence 
of  taxation  must  be  made  more  direct  in  proportion  as  the 
franchise  is  extended.  Our  changes  ought  not  to  be  in 
the  direction  of  the  Compound-Householders-Act  of  1851, 
which  makes  it  no  longer  needful  for  a  Parliamentary  elec- 
tor to  have  paid  poor's-rates  before  giving  a  vote ;  but 
they  ought  to  be  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction.  The 
exercise  of  power  over  the  national  revenue,  should  be 
indissolubly  associated  with  the  conscious  payment  of  con- 
tributions to  that  revenue.  Direct  taxation  instead  of 
being  limited,  as  many  wish,  must  be  extended  to  lower 
and  wider  classes,  as  fast  as  these  classes  are  endowed  with 
political  power. 

Probably  this  proposal  will  be  regarded  with  small 
favour  by  statesmen.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  for 
men  to  approve  a  system  which  tends  to  restrict  their 
powers.  We  know,  too,  that  any  great  extension  of  di- 
rect taxation  will  be  held  at  present  impossible  ;  and  we 


TAXATI02«^  SHOULD  ACCOMPANY  ENFRANCHISEMENT.      371 

are  not  prepared  to  assert  the  contrary.  This,  however, 
is  no  reason  against  reducing  the  indirect  taxation  and 
augmenting  the  direct  taxation  as  far  as  circumstances  al- 
low. And  if  when  the  last  had  been  increased  and  the 
first  decreased  to  the  greatest  extent  now  practicable,  it 
were  made  an  established  principle  that  any  additional 
revenue  must  be  raised  by  direct  taxes,  there  would  be  an 
efficient  check  to  one  of  the  evils  likely  to  follow  from 
further  political  enfranchisement. 

The  other  evil  which  we  have  pointed  out  as  rationally 
to  be  feared,  cannot  be  thus  met,  however.  Though  an 
ever-recurring  experience  of  the  relation  between  State- 
action  and  its  cost,  would  hinder  the  growth  of  those 
State-agencies  which  undertake  to  supply  citizens  with 
positive  conveniences  and  gratifications,  it  would  be  no 
restraint  on  that  negative  and  inexpensive  over-legislation 
which  trespasses  on  individual  freedom — it  would  not  pre- 
vent mischievous  meddling  with  the  relations  between  la- 
bour and  capital.  Against  this  danger  the  only  safeguards 
appear  to  be,  the  spread  of  sounder  views  among  the 
working  classes,  and  the  moral  advance  which  such  so]inder 
views  imply. 

"  That  is  to  say,  the  people  must  be  educated,"  re- 
sponds the  reader.  \Yes,  education  is  the  thing  wanted; 
but  not  the  education  for  which  most  men  agitate.  Ordi- 
nary school-training  is  not  a  preparation  for  the  right  ex- 
ercise of  political  power.  Conclusive  proof  of  this  is 
given  by  the  fact  that  the  artisans,  from  whose  mistaken 
ideas  the  most  danger  is  to  be  feared,  are  the  best  informed 
of  the  working  classes.  Far  from  promising  to  be  a  safe- 
guard, the  spread  of  such  education  as  is  commonly  given, 
appears  more  likely  to  increase  the  danger.  Raising  the 
working  classes  in  general  to  the  artisan-level  of  culture, 
rather  threatens  to  augment  their  power  of  working  polit- 


372      PAELIAMENTARY  EEFOEM  I   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

ical  eviL  The  current  faith  in  Reading,  Writing,  and 
Arithmetic,  as  fitting  men  for  citizenship,  seems  to  ns 
quite  unwarranted :  as  are,  indeed,  most  other  anticipa- 
tions of  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  learning  lessons.  ' 
There  is  no  connection  between  the  ability  to  parse  a 
sentence,  and  a  clear  understanding  of  the  causes  that  de- 
termine the  rate  of  wages.  The  multiplication-table  af- 
fords no  aid  in  seeing  through  the  fallacy  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  property  is  good  for  trade.  Long  practice  may 
have  produced  extremely  good  penmanship  without  hav- 
ing given  the  least  power  to  understand  the  paradox,  that 
machinery  eventually  increases  the  number  of  persons 
employed  in  the  trades  into  which  it  is  introduced.  Nor 
is  it  proved  that  smatterings  of  mensuration,  astronomy, 
or  geography,  fit  men  for  estimating  the  characters  and 
motives  of  Parliamentary  candidates.  Indeed  we  have 
only  thus  to  bring  together  the  antecedents  and  the  anti- 
cipated consequents,  to  see  how  untenable  is  the  belief  in 
a  relation  between  them.  When  we  wish  a  girl  to  become 
a  good  musician,  we  seat  her  before  the  piano :  we  do  not 
put  drawing  implements  into  her  hands,  and  expect  music 
to  come  along  with  skill  in  the  use  of  pencils  and  colour- 
brushes.  Sending  a  boy  to  pore  over  law-books,  would 
be  thought  an  extremely  irrational  way  of  preparing  him 
for  civil  engineering.  And  if  in  these  and  all  other  cases, 
we  do  not  expect  fitness  for  any  function  except  through 
instruction  and  exercise  in  that  function ;  why  do  we  ex- 
pect fitness  for  citizenship  to  be  produced  by  a  discipline 
which  has  no  relation  to  the  duties  of  the  citizen  ? 
'v  Probably  it  will  be  replied  that  by  making  the  work- 
ing man  a  good  reader,  we  give  him  access  to  sources  of 
information  from  which  he  may  learn  how  to  use  his  elec- 
toral power ;  and  that  other  studies  sharpen  his  faculties 
and  make  him  a  better  judge  of  political  questions.  This 
is  true ;  and  the  eventual  tendency  is  unquestionably  good. 


EDUCATION   OF   POLITICIANS.  373 

But  what  if  for  a  long  time  to  come  he  reads  only  to  ob- 
tain confirmation  of  his  errors  ?  What  if  there  exists 
a  literature  appealing  to  his  prejudices,  and  supplying 
him  with  fallacious  arguments  for  the  mistaken  beliefs 
which  he  naturally  takes  up  ?  What  if  he  rejects  all 
teaching  that  aims  to  disabuse  him  of  cherished  delusions  ? 
Must  we  not  say  that  the  culture  which  thus  merely  helps 
the  workman  to  establish  himself  in  error,  rather  unfits 
than  fits  him  for  citizenship  ?  And  do  not  the  trades'- 
unions  furnish  us  with  evidence  of  this  ? 

How  little  that  which  people  commonly  call  education 
prepares  them  for  the  use  of  political  power,  may  be 
judged  from  the  incompetency  of  those  who  have  re- 
ceived the  highest  education  the  country  affords.  Glance 
back  at  the  blunders  of  our  legislation,  and  then  remem- 
ber that  the  men  who  committed  them  had  mostly  taken 
University-degrees,  and  you  must  admit  that  the  pro- 
foundest  ignorance  of  Social  Science  may  accompany  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  all  that  our  cultivated  classes  re- 
gard as  valuable  knowledge.  Do  but  take  a  young  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  fresh  from  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and 
ask  him  what  he  thinks  Law  should  do,  and  why?  or 
what  it  should  not  do,  and  why  ?  and  it  will  become  man- 
ifest that  neither  his  familiarity  with  Aristotle  nor  his 
readings  in  Thucydides,  have  prepared  him  to  answer  the 
very  first  question  a  legislator  ought  to  solve.  A  single 
illustration  will  suffice  to  show  how  difierent  an  education 
from  that  usually  given,  is  required  by  legislators,  and 
consequently  by  those  who  elect  them :  we  mean  the  illus- 
tration which  the  Free-trade  agitation  supplies.  By  kings, 
peers,  and  members  of  Parliament,  mostly  brought  up  at 
universities,  trade  had  been  hampered  by  protections,  pro- 
hibitions, and  bounties.  For  centuries  had  been  main- 
tained these  legislative  appliances  which  a  very  moderate 
insight  shows  to  be  detrimental.     Yet,  of  all  the  highly- 


374:      PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM  I   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

educated  throughout  the  nation  during  these  centuries, 
scarcely  a  man  saw  how  mischievous  such  appliances 
were.  Not  from  one  who  devoted  himself  to  the  most 
approved  studies,  came  the  work  which  set  politicians 
right  on  these  points ;  but  from  one  who  left  college  with- 
out a  degree,  and  prosecuted  inquiries  which  the  estab- 
lished education  ignored.  Adam  Smith  examined  for 
himself  the  industrial  phenomena  of  societies ;  contem- 
plated the  productive  and  distributive  activities  going  on 
around  him ;  traced  out  their  complicated  mutual  depend- 
ences ;  and  thus  reached  general  principles  for  political 
guidance.  In  recent  days,  those  who  have  most  clearly 
understood  the  truths  he  enunciated,  and  by  persevering 
exposition  have  converted  the  nation  to  their  views,  have 
not  been  graduates  of  universities.  While,  contrariwise, 
those  who  have  passed  through  the  prescribed  curricidum^ 
have  commonly  been  the  most  bitter  and  obstinate  oppo- 
nents of  the  changes  dictated  by  politico-economical  sci- 
ence. In  this  all-important  direction,  right  legislation 
was  urged  by  men  deficient  in  the  so-called  best  educa- 
tion ;  and  was  resisted  by  the  great  majority  of  men  who 
had  received  this  so-called  best  education  ! 

The  truth  for  which  we  contend,  and  which  is  so 
strangely  overlooked,  is,  indeed,  almost  a  truism.  Does 
yj  not  our  whole  theory  of  training  imply  that  the  right 
preparation  for  political  power  is  political  cultivation? 
Must  not  that  teaching  which  can  alone  guide  the  citizen 
in  the  fulfilment  of  his  public  actions,  be  a  teachiijg  that 
acquaints  him  with  the  effects  of  public  actions  ? 

The  second  chief  safeguard  to  which  we  must  trust  is, 
then,  the  spread,  not  of  that  mere  technical  and  miscella- 
neous knowledge  which  men  are  so  eagerly  propagating, 
but  of  political  knowledge ;  or,  to  speak  more  accurately — 
knowledge  of  Social  Science.  Above  all,  the  essential 
thing  is,  the  establishment  of  a  true  theory  of  government 


THE   SUPREME   QUESTION  FOR  POLnTCIANS.  375 

— a  true  conception  of  what  legislation  is  for,  and  what 
are  its  proper  limits.  This  question  which  our  political 
discussions  habitually  ignore,  is  a  question  of  greater  mo- 
ment than  any  other.  Inquiries  which  statesmen  deride 
as  speculative  and  unpractical,  will  one  day  be  found  infi- 
nitely more  practical  than  those  which  they  wade  through 
Blue  Books  to  master,  and  nightly  spend  many  hours  in 
debating.  The  considerations  that  every  morning  fill  a 
dozen  columns  of  The  Times^  are  mere  frivolities  when 
compared  with  the  fundamental  consideration — What  is 
the  proper  sphere  of  government  ?  Before  discussing  the 
way  in  which  law  should  regulate  some  particular  thing, 
would  it  not  be  wise  to  put  the  previous  question — 
Whether  law  ought  or  ought  not  to  meddle  with  that 
thing  ?  and  before  answering  this,  to  put  the  more  gen- 
eral question — What  law  should  do,  and  what  it  should 
leave  undone  ?  Surely,  if  there  are  any  limits  at  all  to 
legislation,  the  settlement  of  these  limits  must  have  eflects 
far  more  profound  than  any  particular  Act  of  Parliament 
can  have  ;  and  must  be  by  so  much  the  more  momentous. 
Surely,  if  there  is  danger  that  the  people  may  misuse  po- 
litical power,  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that  they  should 
be  taught  for  what  purpose  political  power  ought  alone  to 
be  used. 

-  Did  the  upper  classes  understand  their  position,  they 
would,  we  think,  see  that  the  diffusion  of  sound  views  on 
this  matter  more  nearly  concerns  their  own  welfare  and 
that  of  the  nation  at  large,  than  any  other  thing  whatever. 
Popular  influence  will  inevitably  go  on  increasing.  Should 
the  masses  gain  a  predominant  power  while  their  ideas  of 
social  arrangements  and  legislative  action  remain  as  crude 
as  at  present,  there  will  certainly  result  disastrous  med- 
dlings with  the  relations  of  capital  and  labour,  as  well  as 
a  disastrous  extension  of  State-administrations.  Immense 
damage  will  be  inflicted :   primarily  on  employers ;  sec- 


376      PAELIAMEJSTAEY  EEFOEM  :   THE  DAITGEES,  ETC. 

ondarily  on  the  employed ;  and  eventually  on  the  nation 
as  a  whole.  These  evils  can  be  prevented,  only  by  estab- 
lishing in  the  public  mind  a  profound  conviction  that 
there  are  certain  comparatively  narrow  limits  to  the  func- 
tions of  the  State ;  and  that  these  limits  ought  on  no  ac- 
count to  be  transgressed.  Having  first  learned  what  these 
limits  are,  the  upper  classes  ought  energetically  to  use  all 
means  of  teaching  them  to  the  people. 

In  'No.  XXIV.  of  this  journal,  for  October,  1857,  we 
endeavoured  to  show,  that  while  representative  govern- 
ment is,  by  its  intrinsic  nature,  better  than  any  other  for 
administering  justice  or  insuring  equitable  relations  of  cit- 
izens to  each  other,  it  is,  by  its  intrinsic  nature,  worse 
than  any  other  for  all  the  various  additional  functions 
which  governments  commonly  undertake.  To  the  ques- 
tion— ^What  is  representative  government  good  for  ?  our 
reply  was — "  It  is  good,  especially  good,  good  above  all 
others,  for  doing  the  thing  which  a  government  should  do. 
It  is  bad,  especially  bad,  bad  above  all  others,  for  doing 
the  things  which  a  government  should  not  do." 

To  this  truth  we  may  here  add  a  correlative  one.  As 
fast  as  a  government,  by  becoming  representative,  grows 
better  fitted  for  maintaining  the  rights  of  citizens,  it 
grows  not  only  unfitted  for  other  purposes,  but  dangerous 
for  other  purposes.  In  gaining  adaptation  for  the  essen- 
tial function  of  a  government,  it  loses  such  adaptation  as 
it  had  for  other  functions ;  not  only  because  its  complex- 
ity is  a  hindrance  to  administrative  action,  but  also  be- 
cause in  discharging  other  functions  it  must  be  mischiev- 
ously influenced  by  class  bias.  So  long  as  it  is  confined 
to  the  duty  of  preventing  the  aggressions  of  individuals 
on  each  other,  and  protecting  the  nation  at  large  against 
external  enemies,  the  wider  its  basis  the  better ;  for  all 
men  are  similarly  interested  in  the  security  of  life,  prop- 


THE  COEEELATIVE  FTJNCTIONS  OF  GOVERNMENT.       377 

erty,  and  freedom  to  exercise  the  faculties.  But  let  it  un- 
dertake to  bring  home  positive  benefits  to  citizens,  or  to 
interfere  with  any  of  the  special  relations  between  class 
and  class,  and  there  necessarily  enters  an  incentive  to  in- 
justice. For  in  no  such  cases  can  the  immediate  interests 
of  all  classes  be  alike.  Therefore  do  we  g^ay  that  as  fast  as 
representation  is  extended,  the  sphere  of  government  must 
be  contracted. 

PosTSCBiPT. — Since  the  foregoing  pages  were  written, 
Lord  John  Russell  has  introduced  his  Reform  Bill ;  and 
in  application  of  the  general  principles  we  contend  for,  a 
few  words  may  fitly  be  added  respecting  it. 

Of  the  extended  county-franchise  most  will  approve, 
save  those  whose  illegitimate  influence  is  diminished  by  it. 
Adding  to  the  rural  constituencies  a  class  less  directly 
dependent  on  large  landowners,  can  scarcely  fail  to  be 
beneficial.  Even  should  it  not  at  first  perceptibly  affect 
the  choice  of  representatives,  it  will  still  be  a  good  stimu- 
lus to  political  education  and  to  consequent  future  bene- 
fits. Of  the  redistribution  of  seats,  little  is  to  be  said, 
further  than  that,  however  far  short  it  may  fall  of  an  equit- 
able arrangement,  it  is  perhaps  as  much  as  can  at  present 
be  obtained. 

Whether  the  right  limit  for  the  borough-franchise  has 
been  chosen,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  question  that  admits 
of  much  discussion.  Some  hesitation  will  probably  be 
felt  by  all  who  duly  weigh  the  evidence  on  both  sides. 
Believing,  as  we  do,  that  the  guidance  of  abstract  equity, 
however  much  it  may  need  qualification,  must  never  be  ig- 
nored, we  should  be  glad  were  it  at  once  practicable  more 
nearly  to  follow  it ;  since  it  is  certain  that  only  as  fast  as 
the  injustice  of  political  exclusion  is  brought  to  an  end, 
will  the  many  political  injustices  which  grow  out  of  it, 
disappear.     Nevertheless,  we  are  convinced  that  the  forms 


378      PAELIAMENTAEY  EEFORM !   THE  DANGERS,  ETC. 

which  freedom  requires,  will  not  of  themselves  produce 
the  reality  of  freedom,  in  the  absence  of  an  appropriate 
national  character,  any  more  than  the  most  perfect  mechan- 
ism will  do  its  work  in  the  absence  of  a  motive  power. 
There  seems  good  reason  to  think  that  the  degree  of  lib- 
erty a  people  is"  capable  of  in  any  given  age,  is  a  fixed 
quantity ;  and  that  any  artificial  extension  of  it  in  one  di- 
rection, simply  brings  about  an  equivalent  limitation  in 
some  other  direction.  French  republics  show  scarcely  any 
more  respect  for  individual  rights  than  the  despotisms 
they  supplant ;  and  French  electors  use  their  freedom  to 
put  themselves  again  in  slavery.  In  America,  the  feeble 
restraints  imposed  by  the  State  are  supplemented  by  the 
strong  restraints  of  a  public  opinion  which,  in  many  re- 
spects, holds  the  citizens  in  greater  bondage  than  here. 

And  if  there  needs  a  demonstration  that  representative 
equality  is  an  insufficient  safeguard  for  freedom,  we  have 
it  in  the  trades'-unions  already  referred  to  ;  which,  purely 
democratic  as  is  their  organization,  yet  exercise  over  their 
members  a  tyranny  that  is  almost  Neapolitan  in  its  rigour 
and  unscrupulousness.  The  greatest  attainable  amount 
of  individual  liberty  of  action,  being  the  true  end ;  and 
the  diffusion  of  political  power  being  regarded  mainly  as 
a  means  to  this  end ;  the  real  question  when  considering 
further  extensions  of  the  franchise,  is — whether  the  aver- 
age liberty  of  action  of  citizens  will  be  increased? — 
whether  men  will  be  severally  freer  than  before  to  pursue 
the  objects  of  life  in  their  own  way?  Or,  in  the  present 
case,  the  question  is — whether  the  good  which  £7,  £6,  or 
£5  householders  would  undoubtedly  do  in  helping  to  abol- 
ish existing  injustices,  will  be  partly  or  wholly  neutralized 
by  the  evil  they  might  do  in  establishing  other  injustices  ? 
The  desideratum  is,  as  large  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  electors  as  can  be  made  without  enabling  the  people 
to  carry  out  their  delusive  schemes  of  over-legislation. 


379 

Whether  the  increase  proposed  is  greater  or  less  than  this, 
is  the  essential  point.  Let  us  briefly  consider  the  evidence 
on  each  side. 

As  shown  by  Lord  J.  Russell's  figures,  the  new  bor- 
ough-electors will  consist  mainly  of  artisans ;  and  these, 
as  we  have  seen,  are  in  great  part  banded  together  by  a 
common  wish  to  regulate  the  relations  of  capital  and  la- 
bour. As  a  class,  they  are  not  as  Lord  J.  Russell  describes 
them,  "  fitted  to  exercise  the  franchise  freely  and  inde- 
pendently." On  the  contrary,  there  are  no  men  in  the 
community  so  shackled.  They  are  the  slaves  of  the  au- 
thorities they  have  themselves  set  up.  The  dependence 
of  farmers  on  landlords,  or  of  operatives  on  employers,  is 
much  less  servile ;  for  they  can  carry  their  capital  or  la- 
bour elsewhere.  But  the  penalty  for  disobedience  to 
trades-union  dictates,  pursues  the  rebel  throughout  the 
kingdom.  Hence  the  great  mass  of  the  new  borough- 
electors  must  be  expected  to  act  simultaneously,  on  the 
word  of  command  being  issued  from  a  central  council  of 
united  trades.  Even  while  we  write,  we  meet  with  fresh 
reason  for  anticipating  this  result.  An  address  from  the 
Conference  of  the  Building  Trades  to  the  working  classes 
throughout  the  kingdom,  has  just  been  published,  thank- 
ing them  for  their  support ;  advising  the  maintenance  of 
the  organization;  anticipating  future  success  in  their  aims; 
and  intimating  the  propriety  of  recommencing  the  nine- 
hours'  agitation.  We  must,  then,  be  prepared  to  see  these 
industrial  questions  made  leading  questions ;  for  artisans 
have  a  much  keener  interest  in  them  than  in  any  others. 
And  we  may  feel  certain  that  many  elections  will  turn 
upon  them. 

How  many  ?  There  are  some  thirty  boroughs  in  which 
the  newly-enfranchised  will  form  an  actual  majority — will, 
if  they  act  together,  be  able  to  outvote  the  existing  elec- 
tors ;  even  supposing  the  parties  into  which  they  are  now 


380      PAELIAMENTAEY  EEFOEM I   THE  DANGEE8,  ETC- 


divided  were  to  unite.  In  half-a-dozen  other  boroughs, 
the  newly-enfranchised  will  form  a  virtual  majority — will 
preponderate  unless  the  present  liberal  and  conservative 
voters  cooperate  with  great  unanimity,  which  they  will  bo 
unlikely  to  do.  And  the  number  proposed  to  be  added  to 
the  constituency,  is  one-half  or  more  in  nearly  fifty  other 
boroughs :  that  is,  in  nearly  fifty  other  boroughs,  the  new 
party  will  be  able  to  arbitrate  between  the  two  existing 
parties ;  and  will  give  its  support  to  whichever  of  these 
promises  most  aid  to  artisan-schemes.  It  may  be  said  that 
in  this  estimate  we  assume  the  whole  of  the  new  borough- 
electors  to  belong  to  the  artisan-class,  which  they  do  not. 
This  is  true.  But  on  the  other  hand  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, that  among  the  £10  householders  there  is  a  very 
considerable  sprinkling  of  this  class,  while  the  freemen 
chiefly  consist  of  it ;  and  hence  the  whole  artisan  body  in 
each  constituency  will  probably  be  not  smaller  than  we 
have  assumed.  If  so,  it  follows  that  should  the  trades- 
union  organization  be  brought  to  bear  on  borough-elec- 
tions, as  it  is  pretty  certain  to  be,  it  may  prevail  in  some 
eighty  or  ninety  places,  and  command  from  100  to  150 
seats — supposing,  that  is,  that  it  can  obtain  as  many  eligi- 
ble candidates. 

Meanwhile,  the  county-constituencies  in  their  proposed 
state,  as  much  as  in  their  existing  state,  not  being  under 
trades-union  influence,  may  be  expected  to  stand  in  antag- 
onism to  the  artisan-constituencies,  as  may  also  the  small 
boroughs.  It  is  just  possible,  indeed,  that  irritated  by  the 
ever-growing  power  of  a  rich  mercantile  class,  continually 
treading  closer  on  their  heels,  the  landowners,  carrying 
with  them  their  dependents,  might  join  the  employed  in 
their  dictation  to  employers ;  just  as,  in  past  times,  the 
nobles  joined  the  commonalty  against  the  kings,  or  the 
kings  joined  the  commonalty  against  the  nobles.  But 
leaving  out  this  remote  contingency,  we  may  fairly  expect 


NATUKAL   RESTRAINTS   OF   CLASS-INTERESTS.  381 

the  rural  constituencies  to  oppose  the  large  urban  ones  on 
these  industrial  questions.  Thus,  then,  the  point  to  be 
decided  is,  whether  the  benefits  that  will  result  from  this 
extended  suffrage — benefits  which  we  doubt  not  will  be 
great — may  not  be  secured,  while  the  accompanying  evil 
tendencies  are  kept  in  check.  It  may  be  that  these  new 
artisan-electors  will  be  powerful  for  good,  while  their 
power  to  work  evil  will  be  in  a  great  degree  neutralized. 
But  this  we  should  like  to  see  well  discussed. 

On  one  question,  however,  we  feel  no  hesitation ; 
namely,  the  question  of  a  ratepaying-qualification.  From 
Lord  John  Russell's  answer  to  Mr.  Bright,  and  more  re- 
cently from  his  answer  to  Mr.  Steel,  we  gather  that  on 
this  point  there  is  to  be  no  alteration — that  £6  household- 
ers will  stand  on  the  same  footing  that  £10  householders 
do  at  present.  Now  by  the  Compound-Householders-Act 
of  1851,  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  it  is  provided 
that  tenants  of  £10  houses  whose  rates  are  paid  by  their 
landlords,  shall,  after  having  once  tendered  payment  of 
rates  to  the  authorities,  be  thereafter  considered  as  rate- 
payers, and  have  votes  accordingly.  That  is  to  say,  the 
ratepaying-qualification  is  made  nominal ;  and  that  in 
practice  it  has  become  so,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  under 
this  Act,  4,000  electors  were  suddenly  added  to  the  con^ 
stituency  of  Manchester. 

The  continuance  and  extension  of  this  arrangement, 
we  conceive  to  be  wholly  vicious.  Already  we  have 
shown  that  the  incidence  of  taxation  ought  to  be  made 
more  direct  as  fast  as  popular  power  is  increased ;  and 
that,  as  diminishing  the  elector's  personal  experience  of 
the  costs  of  public  administration,  this  abolition  of  a  rate- 
paying-qualification is  a  retrograde  step.  But  this  is  by 
no  means  the  sole  ground  for  disapproval.  The  ratepay- 
ing-qualification is  a  valuable  test — a  test  which  tends  to 
separate  the  more  worthy  of  the  working  classes  from  the 


382      PAELIAMENTAEY  EEFOBM:   THE  DANGEES,  ETC. 

less  worthy.  Nay  more,  it  tends  to  select  for  enfranchise- 
ment, those  who  have  the  moral  and  intellectual  qualities 
especially  required  for  judicious  political  conduct.  For 
what  general  mental  characteristic  does  judicious  political 
conduct  presuppose  ?  The  power  of  realizing  remote  con- 
sequences. People  who  are  misled  by  demagogues,  are 
those  who  are  impressed  with  the  proximate  results  set 
forth  to  them,  but  are  not  impressed  by  the  distant  results^ 
even  when  these  are  explained — regard  them  as  vague, 
shadowy,  theoretical,  and  are  not  to  be  deterred  by  them 
from  clutching  at  a  promised  boon.  Conversely,  the  wise 
citizen  is  the  one  who  conceives  the  distant  evils  so  clearly, 
that  they  are  practically  present  to  him,  and  thus  out- 
weigh the  immediate  temptation.  Now  these  are  just  the 
respective  characteristics  of  the  two  classes  of  tenants 
whom  a  ratepaying-qualification  separates : — the  one  hav- 
ing their  rates  paid  by  their  landlords,  and  so  losing  their 
votes ;  the  other  paying  their  own  rates,  that  they  may 
get  votes : — the  one  unable  to  resist  present  temptations, 
unable  to  save  money,  and  therefore  so  inconvenienced  by 
the  payment  of  rates  as  to  be  disfranchised  rather  than 
pay  them;  the  other  resisting  present  temptations  and 
saving  money,  with  the  view,  among  other  ends,  of  pay- 
ing rates  and  becoming  electors.  Trace  their  respective 
traits  to  their  sources,  and  it  becomes  manifest,  that,  on 
the  average,  the  pecuniarily  improvident  must  be  also  the 
politically  improvident ;  and  that  the  politically  provident 
must  be  far  more  numerous  among  those  who  are  pecu- 
niarily provident.  Hence,  it  is  a  folly  to  throw  aside  a 
regulation  under  which  these  spontaneously  separate  them- 
selves— severally  disfranchise  themselves  and  enfranchise 
themselves. 


INDEX. 


Absolute  morality,  function  of,  211, 
215,  249:  meaning  of,  224. 

Accommodation-bills  characterized, 
129. 

Adam  Smith,  education  of,  374. 

Adaptations  of  private  enterprise,  76. 

Adjective,  collocation  of  with  sub- 
stantive, 16. 

Association  of  words  and  ideas,  12. 

Attention,  force  expended  in,  39. 


B 


Bank  of  England,  suspension  of,  323, 
a  monopoly,  324. 

Bankers'  operations,  checks  upon, 
347. 

Bankers,  temptations  of,  345. 

Bank  notes  defined,  322. 

Banking  delinquencies,  127. 

Basis  of  a  credit  currency,  320. 

Blair,  Dr.,  10. 

Beauty  of  aspect  and  beauty  of  char- 
acter, relation  of.  149. 

Breeding,  equilibrium  of  constitu- 
tions in,  161. 

Buying  commercial  patronage,  109. 


C 


Cause  and  effect,  complexity  of  their 

connection,  62. 
Causes  of  dishonesties  in  trade,  139. 
Chancery  courts,  95. 
Character  and  expression,  149. 


Civilized  races,  mixed  origin  of,  157. 
Civilization,  present  phase  of,  146. 
Classes,  upper  and  lower;  morality 

and  conscientiousness  of,  354. 
Clergy,  their  opposition  to  the  repeal 

of  the  corn  laws,  356. 
Climax,  explanation  of,  42. 
Cloths,   cheating  in  their    lengths, 

113. 
Clothing  trades,  briberies  and  dis- 
honesties in^  108. 
Commercial  disasters,  origin  of,  133. 
Commercial    immoralities,   root    of, 

142. 
Composition,  literary,  upon  what  it 

depends,  9. 
Concrete  terms,  advantage  of,  15. 
Contractors,  railway,  273. 
Convicts,  treatment  of  transported, 

219. 
Corporate  conscience,  261. 
Currency  discussion,  relation  of  the 

parties  to  it,  349. 
Currency,  mixed  origin  of,  320. 
Crises,  monetary,  in  England,  330; 

in  Hamburg,  333. 
Crises,  salutary  effects  of,  341. 


D 


Dancing,  when  graceful,  314. 

Defoe  on  the  corruptions  of  trade, 
137. 

Desires  personal,  the  motor  of  social 
changes,  84. 

Despotism,  advantages  of,  192;  mis- 
chiefs of,  198. 

Despotism  of  trades-unions,  361. 


384 


INDEX. 


Directors,  railway,  misdoings  of,  275. 
Dishonesty  cumulative,  262. 
Distrust  of  the  validity  of  our  be- 
liefs, 48. 


Ecclesiastical  courts,  95, 
Economy  of  the  sensibilities,  40.  _ 
Economizing  the  reader's  attention, 

Education  of  the  working  classes, 
371.  .      „. 

Electors,  character  of,  173;  intelli- 
gence of,  174,  181. 

Emotion,  poetry  the  language  of,  38. 

English  government,  work  it  at- 
tempts, 182;  view  of,  187-191. 

Erroneous  popular  notions  respect- 
ing corporate  companies,  254.^ 

Evils  produced  by  judicial  adminis- 
tration, 97. 

Experience,  limits  to  the  teachings 
of,  103. 

Expression,  definition  of,  150. 

Expression,  no  general  theory  of,  10. 

Extension  railway,  origin  of  the  sys- 
tem of.  258. 


F 


Facial  features  and  natural  express- 
ion, 151. 

Faith  in  government  must  be  out- 
grown, 106. 

Feeling  should  control  style,  46. 

Figures  of  speech,  27. 

Forces  acting  in  society,  63. 

Force  in  expression,  causes  of,  36. 

Frauds  in  trade,  how  introduced, 
123. 

French  social  order,  89. 

Free-trade,  91 ;  morality  ot,  212. 


G 


Generalization  of  social  actions,  92. 
Gold,  drainage  of  from  the  country, 

335;  considered  as  a  commodity, 

337. 
Government  attempts  too  much,  93  ; 

bound  to  enforce  contracts,  297. 
Gracefulness,  theory  of,  312. 
Grammar,  Dr.  Latham  on,  9. 
Grocery  trade,  cheating  in  the,  115. 
Guizot,  99. 


H 


Hero-worship,  nature  of,  194. 

Honesty  in  trade  the  road  to  bank- 
ruptcy, 125. 

Honor  paid  to  wealthy  rogues,  144. 

Humility  needed  in  political  conduct, 
50. 

Hybridity,  160. 


Ideal  Greek  head,  154. 
Institutions  must  grow,  76;   deter 

mined  by  popular  character,  216.^ 
Intermediate  system  of  prison  disci 

pline,  234. 


Joint  stock  enterprises,  lesson  drawn 

from,  251. 
Judicial  negligence,  98. 
Justice  neglected  by  government,  94. 


Karnes,  Lord,  10,  20. 

Knaveries  of  wholesale  houses,  115. 


Language,  relation  of  to  thought, 
11 ;  friction  of,  42. 

Land-owners  greed  influences  rail- 
way policy,  263. 

Law  the  enemy  of  the  citizen,  97. 

Laws,  inefficiency  of,  58. 

Lawyers'  railway,  268. 

Legislative  miscarriages,  58. 

Legislative  interference  with  curren- 
cy, bad  effects  of,  343. 

Legislation,  blind  faith  in,  51. 

Liberty  in  any  age  a  fixed  quantity, 
378. 

Loyalty,  use  of,  195;  causes  of  de- 
cline of,  196. 


M 


Manufacturers,  dishonesties  of,  118. 
Mark  system,  working  of,  235. 
Material  development  the  work  of 

the  age,  146. 
Mechanics'  institutions,  management 

of,  166. 
Mental  faculties,  expansion  of,  41. 


INDEX. 


385 


Mendacity  of  clerks,  112. 

Metaphor,  use  of,  30. 

Metonymy,  use  of,  28. 

Mettray,  case  of,  233. 

Mind  and  feature,  relation  of,  155. 

Mis-education,  evils  of,  372. 

Mixed  currency  self-adjusting,  327. 

Morality,  relative  and  absolute,  210 ; 
of  various  classes,  354. 

Morals  of  trade,  107;  signs  of  im- 
provement in,  148. 

Mutual  restraint  of  class  interests, 
381. 


N 


National  character,  how  formed,  100. 


0 


Obermair's  experience  as  prison  gov- 
ernor, 231. 

Officialism,  slowness  of,  67;  stupid- 
ity of,  67;  extravagance  of,  68; 
unadaptiveness  of,  69 ;  corruption 
of,  71 ;  obstractiveness  of,  72. 

OflFspring,  mixed  qualities  of,  157. 

Opinions,  distrust  of,  48. 

Order  of  social  requirements,  85; 
government  cannot  judge  of,  87. 

Over-legislation,  negative  evils  of,  93. 


Paper  circulation,  excess  of,  when 

salutary,  324. 
Parental  constitutions,  traits  of  in 

offspring,  158. 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  on  the  eflBcacy  of 

legislation,  104. 
Philanthropy,  short-sightedness  of, 

100. 
Poetic  speech,  in  what  it  consists, 

37. 
Political  education,  necessity  of,  374. 
Popular    character    determines  the 

penal  code,  216. 
Predicate  and  subject,  arrangement 

Printers  Union,  working  of,  359. 

Prison  discipline  in  relation  to  idle- 
ness, 240 ;  to  self-control,  240. 

Prison  ethics,  approved  system  of, 
244. 

Private  enterprise,  what  it  has  ac- 
complished, 54;  superiority  of, 
17 


over  government,  75;  continental 
dependence  on,  102. 

Prominence  of  jaw,  meaning  of,  151. 

Protecting  the  individual  against 
himself,  55. 

Protection,  governmental,  91. 

Protuberant  cheek  bones,  signifi- 
cance of,  153. 

Public  prudence  liable  to  fluctuation, 
321. 

Punishment,  grounds  of  its  justice, 
221-225 ;  in  what  it  should  consist, 
225;  just  limits  of,  226;  how  to  fix 
its  duration,  242;  scheme  of,  dic- 
tated by  justice,  244;  evil  effects 
of  excessive,  239. 


R 


Railroad  companies  paralleled  with 
the  state,  252. 

Railroad  officials,  character  of,  260. 

Railroads,  order  of  their  appearance 
in  England,  88. 

Railway  administration,  essential  vi- 
ciousness  of,  256. 

Railway  companies,  dishonesties  of, 
253-255. 

Railway  directors,  how  elected,  269. 

Railway  engineers,  morality  of,  271. 

Railway  politics,  morality  of,  213. 

Railway  system,  fundamental  vice 
of,  290. 

Reform-bill,  horror  of,  353. 

Reform-bill  of  Lord  John  Russell, 
377. 

Representative  government,  faults 
of,  172-191;  why  it  is  the  best, 
201-204 ;  failures  of,  due  to  misap- 
plication, 204-207;  when  danger- 
ous, 376. 

Representatives,  acts  of  governed  by 
interest,  175;  principle  in  choosing, 
175 ;  naval  and  military  officers  as, 
177 ;  lawyers  as,  179 ;  qualifications 
of,  184. 

Representative  system  in  corpora- 
tions, 251. 

Restrictions  on  the  hours  of  labor, 
358. 

Right  to  coerce  the  criminal,  basis  of, 
221-225. 


S 


Salesmen,  their  falsehood  and  dupli- 
city, 110. 
Saxon  English,  12;  brevity  of,  13. 


386 


INDEX. 


Self-dependent  races,  progressive- 
ness  of,  102. 

Self-criticism,  49. 

Self-help,  national,  101. 

Sensibilities,  economy  of,  40. 

Sentences,  arrangement  of  parts  of, 
20 ;  suspensions  of,  23. 

Shareholders,  railway,  small  influ- 
ence of,  279 ;  characters  of,  283. 

Sheep,  mixture  of  French  and  Eng- 
lish races  of,  158. 

Silk-business,  frauds  in,  119. 

Simile,  use  of,  28. 

Social  changes,  unlikely  origin  of, 
82.         ^  _ 

Social  science,  importance  of  diffus- 
ing a  knowledge  of,  375. 

Solitary  system  increases  the  ten- 
dency to  crime,  220. 

State  agency  contrasted  with  private 
enterprise,  77 ;  dependent  upon 
private  action,  79. 

State  enterprise,  positive  injuries  of, 
60. 

State,  failure  of  to  perform  its  du- 
ties, 52. 

Stimulus  to  social  action,  65. 

Stocking  weavers,  distress  and  re- 
lief of,  83. 

Style,  why  it  should  be  varied,  44 ; 
direct  and  indirect,  24 ;  varies  with 
the  mind  addressed,  25;  employ- 
ment of  figures  in,  27. 

Synechdoche,  use  of,  27. 


Tailors,  how  they  are  cheated.  111. 

Taxation  should  be  direct  as  the  fran- 
chise is  extended,  37. 

Town  councils,  character  of,  169 ; 
extravagance  of,  171. 

Trade  essentially  corrupt,  134. 

Trade  immoralities,  are  they  growing 
worse?  136;  remedy  for,  146. 

Trades-unions,  tyranny  of,  378. 

U 

University  education,   estimate    of. 

373. 
Utopianisma  of  the  working  classes, 

365. 


Valencia,  prison  of,  237. 

W 

Wealth,  indiscriminate  respect  paid, 
to,  140 ;  protest  against  the  ad!ora- 
tion  of,  147 ;  the  possessor  of  hon- 
estly acquired,  respectable,  145. 

Whately,  Dr.,  26,  30. 

Working  classes  in  England,  de- 
mands of,  357. 

Working  classes,  education  of,  371. 

Words,  economic  use  of,  12 ;  use  of 
long,  14;  strength  of  Saxon,  15; 
sequence  of,  16. 


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